The Medieval Moon: A History of Haunting and Blessing

by Ayoush Lazikani

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 9, 2025

Reviews

[History Today]

Historical commentary on the moon’s place in human culture, especially from historians of science, is all too often dominated by the question of what people in the past knew about it. Did they understand that it was a sphere, that its light was received from the sun, that it is responsible for tides, and so on? The difficulty with this sort of approach is that it is narrowly focused on the past’s relationship to the present. It ignores almost entirely what the moon meant to people at the time. It is this question that Ayoush Lazikani – a literary scholar rather than a historian of science – sets out to address in The Medieval Moon. This is a rich and multifaceted cultural history across the period 700-1600 that considers the extent of medieval thought about the moon for its own sake.

Lazikani draws attention to the fact that medieval attitudes to the moon have hitherto been neglected, in comparison with ancient speculations and the discoveries of the Enlightenment era. Even where scholars have written about medieval approaches to the moon, it has seldom been considered as a subject in its own right, largely because historians of medicine, intellectual historians, and historians of science generally consider ‘their’ aspect of the moon within the silo of their own discipline – from the lunar calendar, to the moon’s role in astrology and alchemy, to the lunar magic found in the 11th-century Arabic compendium the Picatrix, to concepts of lunacy within medieval medicine. Lazikani unites these disparate perspectives in a coherent and beautifully written study.

Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...

Francis Young’s latest book is Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe’s Last Pagan Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

[Jeba Shikdar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is quite rare to encounter a scholarly and deeply intellectual book that is equally accessible and engaging. Prior knowledge in medieval literature is not needed as Lazikani guides us through the process of learning as she concisely explains unfamiliar concepts.

I particularly appreciate how the ending of each chapter is deeply touching and prosaic. Lazikani, at various occasions, blends poetry and criticism allowing the learning experience to be gratifying and rewarding. Her own unique take (the moonlight metaphor) on tackling work that strongly feature the moon across different continents is clever, as her thematic focus seeps in her critical theory.

In terms of the selection of material for each chapter, I liked how the Arabic material showcased the universal theme of love as it is infused with beauty and richness. The book teaches you so much about how the moon was perceived. I particularly liked the non-symbolic significance; ways in which it practically affected day-to-day lives.

[Emily Winterburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Sky at Night (Sept 2025). This book looks at how the Moon was depicted in different contexts around the world in the medieval period. Lots of art history, myths, religion and medicine. It's not exhaustive but is nonetheless full of variety.