Petra Sijpesteijn

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.