The ‘Year According to the Arabs’: The Rise of the ‘Hijra’-Era in the Context of the Administrative Structures in the Early Islamic Empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article offers a survey of the spread and function of what is currently known as the hijrī calendar among different socio-linguistic milieus of the early Islamic empire. In particular, it analyses insider and outsider descriptions of the new imperial calendar as a window into the cultural profile of mediators between the Arabic and Graeco-Egyptian milieus in early Islamic Egypt. I argue that the ways the hijrī calendar was referred to in Greek and Coptic documentary texts diverged depending on the level of the issuing authority in the provincial administration: while documents issued by district officials label the era as the ‘year of the Saracens’ or use it without specifications, documents produced by the gubernatorial office use the designation ‘the year according to the Arabs’ (kata Arabas) instead. The main argument is that the kata Arabas label – as well as other formulaic peculiarities of documents produced in the provincial capital – can be linked to the employment of Hellenized Syro-Aramaean experts among the entourage of Arab governors appointed by Damascus. To flesh out the links between the gubernatorial chancery and a Syro-Aramean milieu, Egyptian evidence will be contrasted with Greek and Syriac texts from Syria-Palestine and Northern Mesopotamia.