Voi mi benedite montagne. Un'introduzione

Al-Mustaṭraf fī kull fann mustaẓraf, a well-known encyclopaedic work by the Mamluk author al-Abshīhī (b. 1388 - d. after 1446?), contains a short chapter, number LXVII, dedicated to metals and precious stones. Adopting an integrated approach that also takes into account contributions of ecocriticism (I limit myself here to mentioning Mastrorosa, Zumbo 2002; Vernant 1965; Malafouris 2013; Gibson 2015; Iovino, Oppemann 2014; Iovino 2017; 2023), I focus on the terri- tories of the imagination to address some issues concerning the relationship be- tween humans and lithic material in Arab culture, a relationship that has been much less explored than the one between humans and other aspects of the natu- ral world. Indeed, Arabs have dealt with non-human subjects, metals, stones and earthly materials in a broad sense, not only for practical purposes but also for in- tellectual projects, as can be seen in al-Abshīhī’s brief lapidary entries. Generally considered inert material or resources to be exploited (Luisetti 2023), metals and stones, as they relate to time in ways precluded to biological entities, have been used metaphorically to describe different aspects of the human condition, inspir- ing ritualisations and symbolisations that transcend the boundaries of the human sensory apparatus. I focus, in particular, on the entries concerning gold, swallow stone (Chelidonius) and diamonds.