A compelling look at the Fatimid caliphate's robust culture of documentation
The lost archive of the Fatimid caliphate (909-1171) survived in an unexpected place: the storage room, or geniza, of a synagogue in Cairo, recycled as scrap paper and deposited there by medieval Jews. Marina Rustow tells the story of this extraordinary find, inviting us to reconsider the longstanding but mistaken consensus that before 1500 the dynasties of the Islamic Middle East produced few documents, and preserved even fewer.
Beginning with government documents before the Fatimids and paper's westward spread across Asia, Rustow reveals a millennial tradition of state record keeping whose very continuities suggest the strength of Middle Eastern institutions, not their weakness. Tracing the complex routes by which Arabic documents made their way from Fatimid palace officials to Jewish scribes, the book provides a rare window onto a robust culture of documentation and archiving not only comparable to that of medieval Europe, but, in many cases, surpassing it. Above all, Rustow argues that the problem of archives in the medieval Middle East lies not with the region's administrative culture, but with our failure to understand preindustrial documentary ecology.
Illustrated with stunning examples from the Cairo Geniza, this compelling book advances our understanding of documents as physical artifacts, showing how the records of the Fatimid caliphate, once recovered, deciphered, and studied, can help change our thinking about the medieval Islamicate world and about premodern polities more broadly.
Описание: Focusing on the political life of the sha`b in Cairo, this book shows how men and women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. It examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decision-making.
Автор: Petry Carl F. Название: The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages ISBN: 0691614555 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780691614557 Издательство: Wiley Рейтинг: Цена: 11088.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: This pioneer study presents a quantitative analysis of the civilian elite in Mamluk Cairo. Using information about 4,631 individuals drawn from two fifteenth-century biographical dictionaries, Carl Petry explores the geographic origins of the civilian elite (the `ulama`) and the distribution of their residences and places of work in Cairo. Origina
Автор: Baldwin James Название: Islamic law and empire in ottoman cairo ISBN: 1474432131 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781474432139 Издательство: Macmillan Рейтинг: Цена: 4288.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: James E. Baldwin examines how the interplay of these two conceptions of Islamic law religious scholarship and royal justice undergirded legal practice in Cairo, the largest and richest city in the Ottoman provinces.
Автор: Dodwell Название: The Founder of Modern Egypt ISBN: 0521232643 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780521232647 Издательство: Cambridge Academ Рейтинг: Цена: 5069.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: Reprinted in 1967, this 1931 book is an historical and administrative study of the reign of Muhammad `Ali (1769-1849). The author strives `to escape from the traditional hero of French and villain of English writers, and to ascertain by a study of original materials what Muhammad `Ali really did`.
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