Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Taxes and Taxpayers”

Arabic Papyrology is relevant to more than the first three hundred years of Islamic Egypt. In its larger sense, papyrology is the use of documentary sources for the study of civilization. To limit the definition of Arabic papyrology by the medium on which documents are written would be to ignore the possibility of millenia-long historical investigation. Analysis of time-series of like documents—for example, marriage or sales contracts—without regard to the change from papyrus to paper, will permit the unprecedented study of a particular institution over time, as well as understanding of variations in language and formulary. Arabic papyrology, hence, presents us with the possibility of in-depth cross-cultural studies of institutions which lie at the very foundations of Middle Eastern civilization.

Article Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology, Archives, and Times of Change in the Mediterranean and the Islamicate World” was published on October 1, 2021 in the journal Der Islam (volume 98, issue 2).

Documentary materials from the Cairo Geniza present scholars with enormous opportunities for historical research. At the same time, both the nature of the materials and the history of scholarship using them lead to some unusual methodological challenges. This essay reviews recent developments in the understanding of the nature of the extant medieval materials as it now appears that Geniza practice was much less universal than previously thought and much material (perhaps the majority) from the classical period comes from the deposited archives of only a few handfuls of individuals. Reviewing previous scholars’ approaches to collecting dossiers of material to study, the essay makes suggestions for navigating the existing scholarship, particularly the works of S. D. Goitein. In outlining some of the challenges of writing history from scattered and undated materials, it also considers limited but increasing research in ancillary fields—paleography, diplomatics, philology, and prosopography—that might help place individual fragments. Finally, I turn to typology and efforts to understand the nature of Hebrew and Arabic everyday literate production found in the Geniza and place it in the broader context of growing research in Arabic papyrology.

<b>Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Administration, Justice, and Daily Life in Empires of the Mediterranean”</b>

Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Documentary Studies on the Mediterranean and the Islamicate World”

Annotated Bibliography: “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017: Kaplony, A., “Comparing Qurʾānic Suras with Pre-800 Documents: With an Appendix on Subtypes of Pre-800 Kitāb Documents,” Der Islam 95.2 (2018): 312–366.

Two Recent Publications on Arabic Papyrology

<b>Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017</b>

Annotated Bibliography: “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017:Shatzmiller, M., “The Adoption of Paper in the Middle East, 700–1300 AD,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 61 (2018): 461–490

Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Documentary Studies on the Mediterranean and the Islamicate World”

Annotated Bibliography: “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017: Liebrenz, B., “An Arabic Letter (ca. AH 6th/12th CE c.) Concerning the Pro- duction of a Manuscript of Ibn Sīnā’s al-Šifā,” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 9.1 (2018): 32–38

<b>Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Gender, Conversions, and Book Culture”</b>

Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics” New publications 2018 and addenda 2017

Annotated Bibliography: “Arabic Papyrology and Diplomatics”New publications 2017 and addenda 2015–2016

This article presents editions and a comparative structural analysis of six Cairo Geniza letters in Judaeo-Arabic which were written by Manṣūr b. Sālim, a father in early thirteenth-century Alexandria desperate to bring home his runaway son Abū l-Naǧm. Three of Manṣūr’s letters are addressed to communal leaders in Fustat and three to the runaway son himself. The letters to communal leaders are shown to be more regimented, with underlying patterns of organization beneath the apparent disorder and freneticism. By contrast, the letters to the son are more varied, the father giving himself free rein to improvise, hector, and impart wisdom. This article contributes to bridging the gap between the disciplines of Cairo Geniza studies and Arabic papyrology and proposes a methodology for analyzing the balance between structure and spontaneity in the process of letter composition. It also offers the edition of: 1. P. Cambr. UL Inv. T-S 10 J 13.10. Letter to Eliyyahu the Judge; - 2. P. Cambr. UL Inv. T-S 10 J 14.12. Letter to the most venerable elder (al-šayḫ al-aǧall); - 3. P. New York Jewish Theol. Sem. Inv. ENA NS I.2. The letter to the venerable scholar (al-talmid al-ǧalīl); - 4. P. Cambr. UL Inv. T-S 12.415. Possibly the earlier complete letter to the son; - 5. P. Cambr. UL Inv. T-S Ar. 18 (1).137. Possibly the later complete letter to the son; - 6. P. Cambr. UL Inv. 13 J 28.17. The end of a third letter to the son.