Petra Sijpesteijn

In the 7th century CE, the prophet Muhammad united the people of the Arabian Peninsula through the formation of Islam. Over the next 30 years, caliphs conquered vast areas beyond Arabia, including their mighty neighbors the Persians and Byzantines. But an empire this vast was at risk of conflict and fracture. Petra Sijpesteijn and Birte Kristiansen detail the rise and fall of the Islamic Empire. [Directed by Elahe Baloochi, Fardi Mahmoodi, narrated by Safia Elhillo, music by Stephen LaRosa].

It's 791 CE. As the morning sun shines on the Golden Gate Palace, brother and sister Hisham and Asma prepare for the journey of a lifetime: the hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. They intend to travel with the big hajj caravan— but a last-minute mishap threatens to undo months of careful planning. Birte Kristiansen and Petra Sijpesteijn detail a day in the life of siblings in medieval Baghdad. [Directed by Mohammad Babakoohi, narrated by Safia Elhillo, music by Aron Fard].

"Accessible history of the formation of Islam and the first hundred years of Muslim rule in Egypt Examines a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters Illustrated with 35 black and white plates Shaping a Muslim State provides a synthetic study of the political, social, and economic processes which formed early Islamic Egypt. Looking at a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters, dating from between AD 730 and 750, which were written to a Muslim administrator and merchant in the Fayyum oasis in Egypt, Sijpesteijn examines the reasons for the success of the early Arab conquests and the transition from the pre-Islamic Byzantine system and its Egyptian executors to an Arab/Muslim state. By examining the impact of Islam on the daily lives of those living under its rule, the volume highlights the striking newness of Islamic society while also acknowledging the influence of the ancient societies which preceded it. The book applies theoretical discussions about governance, historiography, (social) linguistics, and source criticism to understand the dynamics of early Islamic Egypt, as well as the larger process of state formation in the Islamic world."

In August 2006 a young American called Raed Jarrar discovered Arabic's potency. Detained by four guards at New York's Kennedy Airport for wearing a T-shirt with "We will not be silent" on it in Arabic, he was told that he may as well be entering a bank with a T-shirt announcing "I am a robber." Recently, Arabic writings in the form of slogans on banners and bill boards carried by protestors or sprayed on walls have acquired even more loaded associations for those watching the political developments around the world - from hopes for democratic change to fears of an incipient Islamic extremist takeover. The sheer quantity of baggage that Arabic has acquired on its travels through the Western consciousness is unique. That the West's complex and intricate relationship with the language is now characterised above all by fear is a special tragedy, argues Arabist and papyrologist PetraSijpesteijn in Why Arabic?

In the vigorous defence of Arabic and the long tradition of Arabic studies, Sijpesteijn shows what can be gained by engaging with this extraordinarily fertile language and culture, and how insight and understanding can be found in the most unexpected places. Arabic's endless riches continues to surprise and reward.

Historians have long lamented the lack of contemporary documentary sources for the Islamic middle ages and the inhibiting effect this has had on our understanding of this critically important period. Although the field is richly served by surviving evidence, much of it is hard to locate, difficult to access, and philologically intractable. Presenting a mixture of historical studies and new editions of Greek, Arabic and Coptic material from the seventh to the fifteenth century C.E. from Egypt and Palestine, Documents and the History of the Early Islamic World explores the untapped wealth of documentary sources available in collections around the world and shows how this exciting material can be used for historical analysis.

This book contains the first three Leiden-Aramco Lectures on Arabic Language
and Culture delivered at Leiden University in 2013 and 2015. The lecture
series was initiated on the occasion of the 400-year anniversary of the
founding of the chair of Arabic in 1613 at Leiden University.

The first lecture, by Petra Sijpesteijn, the current holder of the chair, took place on February 4, 2013 in the presence of representatives of the university, and the international
scholarly and diplomatic community. On February 12, 2015 James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, presented his lecture entitled “On Hedgehogs, Foxes and Magpies, and Why the World Should Read Classical Arabic Poetry.” Geert Jan van Gelder, emeritus Laudian professor at Oxford University,
presented his lecture entitled “Antidotes and Anecdotes: A Literary History of Medicine from 13th-Century Syria” on October 8, 2015.

This chapter shows different ways in which the imposition of an imperial political structure—especially one for which “religion” is a major constituent of the court’s self-understanding—affected the makeup of local communities with histories predating the arrival of these new authorities. In so doing, it highlights the importance of the way central authorities conceived of the reality of a multitude of communities under their sway—and conversely, how the way these communities themselves chose to work with or against the newcomers affected ideas about the empires as they were being built. The chapter argues that the new Islamic regime in Egypt initially relied on the services of local elites without seriously affecting the social roles and identities already in place. Therefore, these elites were slow to be fully integrated into the Muslim and Arab community, while Arabs became more “Egyptian” in their outlook. Interests and identities were linked in a process that left many options open to those who could afford to take them.

Edition, translation and discussion of a letter sent in 10th-century Egypt. The sender of the letter, whose name is mentioned in the address on the verso of the papyrus as ‘Ubayd Allāh, relates several commercial transactions concerning the sale of flax involving also other individuals. The back of the papyrus contains a note recording shipments written in Arabic but using Greek letters for numbers.

Soon after his arrival as newly appointed governor of Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj (d. 95/714) faced a standoff with a prominent member of the Baṣran garrison, Ibn al-Jārūd al-ʿAbdī (d. 76/695). In this article, I track the course of this rebellion as an example of a political system that, lacking a hegemonic system of coercion and control, was rather characterized by multiple overlapping centers authority in which the caliph, his governor, and those under their rule all played a part. Within this system, power was in an ongoing state of contestation as it was conceived of in different ways by the various stakeholders. Ibn al-Jārūd’s rebellion thus operated as a form of political negotiation, following established, if fragile, norms of communication within which violence was a calculated gambit, one of a repertoire of available and accepted tactical options. Indeed, despite the violent death of Ibn al-Jārūd and a number of his close followers, his supporters, high-ranking commanders among them, ...

A small fragment of papyrus contains a tradition ascribed to ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644) also known from literary sources, albeit with some variations in the text and transmission history. Written on the re-used back of an official text, it will be used to discuss how such traditions might have functioned in the written culture of the early Abbasid Empire. This small fragment of papyrus contains a tradition ascribed to ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644), an early companion of the prophet Muḥammad and his second successor as leader of the Muslim community. Written on the re-used back of an official text, it offers some revealing insights into how such traditions might have functioned in the written culture of the early Abbasid Empire. The text that concerns us here is written on a piece of papyrus cut from an earlier written document. The other side of the papyrus, which was written first, now contains only three letters written in a very large, monumental script, presumably belonging to an official document. The date of this text, based on the paleog-raphy, can be placed in the first two Islamic centuries (7th–8th centuries C.E.). The letters visible on it can be read as ʿayn-nūn-dāl followed by a vertical slightly oblique line partially broken off, presumably belonging to a free-standing kāf, forming the words ʿindaka.¹ The text is written perpendicular to the fibers (transversa charta) on the smoother inside part of the papyrus roll, which was the usual way papyri were written from the Byzantine period onwards. This practice was continued in papyrus texts produced under the Arabs, in Arabic and other languages. 1 As the dot over the second letter is not certain, the word can also be read ʿabduka. The final letter might possibly also be read as an obliquely written alif, so that the letters might also form the first half of a name, ʿAbd a[l-. Despite the large format and the fact that caliphs, under whose rule a papyrus roll was produced, are always also described as " ʿAbd Allāh, " the traces are not likely to form part of a protocol text, as we would then have expected other traces of writing. See the examples in Grohmann, Corpus Papyrorum Raineri III, Part 2.

Authority and Control in the Countryside looks at the economic, religious, political and cultural instruments that local and regional powers in the late antique to early medieval Mediterranean and Near East used to manage their rural hinterlands. Measures of direct control – land ownership, judicial systems, garrisons and fortifications, religious and administrative appointments, taxes and regulation – and indirect control – monuments and landmarks, cultural styles and artistic models, intellectual and religious influence, and economic and bureaucratic standard-setting – are examined to reconstruct the various means by which authority was asserted over the countryside. Unified by its thematic and spatial focus, this book offers an array of interdisciplinary approaches, allowing for important comparisons across a wide but connected geographical area in the transition from the Sasanian and Roman to the Islamic period. Contributors: Arezou Azad and Hugh Kennedy, Sobhi Bouderbala, Michele Campopiano, Alain Delattre, Jessica Ehinger, Simon Ford, James Howard-Johnston, Elif Keser-Kayaalp, Marie Legendre, Javier Martinez Jimenez, Harry Munt, Annliese Nef and Vivien Prigent, Marion Rivoal and Marie-Odile Rousset, Gesa Schenke, Petra Sijpesteijn, Peter Verkinderen, Luke Yarbrough, Khaled Younes.

Using evidence from Arabic, Coptic and Greek papyri, this paper examines the role and organization of and individuals involved in mediation in the four centuries following the mid-7th-century Muslim conquest of Egypt. Conflict resolution, the actors involved therein and whether the process took place in an institutional framework or in a more informal environment all inform us regarding changing power relations in the province. The effect of shifting power dynamics between members of the local Egyptian elite and the incoming Muslim rulers as well as the effect this had on social organization, the position of local elites and their relations with their indigenous constituencies and the authorities will be discussed. The paper also considers what this says about modifications in Egyptian elite composition and how these modifications relate to developments at the caliphal center. Finally, the question of how the role of local elites as arbitrators can be connected to their position vis-à-vis the Egyptian population on the one hand and the empire’s political center on the other is examined.

A short document written on papyrus records an order for the delivery of Palestinian oil in third/ninth-century CE Egypt. It reveals interesting information concerning transregional trade relations, commercial infrastructures and the logistics of  product distribution, as well as document validation practices and the legal status and authority of documents, especially those of a semi-public nature. The text will be compared to similar orders of payment and delivery, and it will be read for
evidence of local patterns of patronage and systems of care in mediaeval Egypt.

Werner Diem, "Fürsprachebriefe in der arabisch-islamischen
Welt des 8.-14. Jahrhunderts. Eine sozial- und mentalitätsgeschichtliche
Untersuchung"

Arabische Literatur und Rhetorik — Elfhundert bis Achtzehnhundert, 1 Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg, 2015

ISBN 978-3-95650-129-6
ISSN 0948-7727

Conflicten tussen christenen en moslims kennen een lange geschiedenis in Egypte. Sinds de komst van de Arabieren in de 7e eeuw is er regelmatig wrijving tussen beide gemeenschappen. Het is echter niet zo dat de twee groepen voortdurend strijd hebben gevoerd. Anders dan de afgelopen gewelddadige jaren doen vermoeden, zijn er ook perioden geweest waarin kopten en moslims samenleefden en samenwerkten en van elkaar afhankelijk waren.