Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Rustow, Marina
Titre(s) : The lost archive [Texte imprimé] : traces of a caliphate in a Cairo synagogue / Marina Rustow
Publication : Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, copyright 2020
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (598 p.) : illustrations (some color), facsimiles (some color), color maps
; 27 cm
Collection : Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world ; 2020
Lien à la collection : Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world
Note(s) : Bibliogr. (pp. 535-575) Index
"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."--Provided by publisher
Autre(s) forme(s) du titre :
- Autre forme du titre : Traces of a caliphate in a Cairo synagogue
Sujet(s) : Fāṭimides (dynastie) -- Histoire -- Sources
Manuscrits de la Géniza du Caire
Indice(s) Dewey :
956.013 (23e éd.) = Histoire - Moyen-Orient - 0640-1000
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 0691156476. - ISBN 9780691156477
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb465057725
Notice n° :
FRBNF46505772
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Frontmatter ; Contents ; Technical Note ; Introduction: Middle East History's
Archive Problem ; I. Source Survival ; 1. The Geniza: Blind Spots and Cataclysms
; 2. The Storage Capacity of State Power ; 3. The Corpus: Its Shape and Coherence
; II. Chancery Practice ; 4. Paper: The Search for a Sustainable Support ; 5. Layout:
Early Arabic Chancery Norms ; 6. Script: The Impact of the Abbasid East ; 7. Imperial
Norms: The Abbasid Chancery ; 8. The Fatimid Petition-and- Response Procedure ;
III. The Ecology of the Documents ; 9. Supply: A Proliferation of Decrees ; 10.
Administrative Manuals and Nonmanuals ; 11. The Source: The Chancery ; 12. Copying,
Storage, and Dissemination ; 13. The Probative Value of Documents: Archiving and
Registration ; Appendix to Chapter 13: Fatimid ʿAlāʼim and Registration Marks ;
IV. The Problem of Archives ; 14. The Rotulus as an Instrument of Performance ;
15. The Ontological Status of the Decree ; 16. Archives, Documents, and the Persistence
of "Despotism" ; Notes ; Acknowledgments ; Bibliography ; Subject Index ; Index
of Manuscripts with Shelfmarks ; Photo Credits and Permissions
