Research Catalog

Title

Shaping a Muslim state : the world of a mid-eighth-century Egyptian official / Petra M. Sijpesteijn.

Author

Sijpesteijn, Petra.

Publication

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxvii, 524 pages, 40 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, maps; 22 cm

Summary

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.

Series Statement

Oxford studies in Byzantium

Uniform Title

Oxford studies in Byzantium

Subjects

• Paleography, Arabic
• ʻAbd Allāh ibn Asʻad, active 8th century > Correspondence
• Nājid ibn Muslim, active 8th century > Correspondence
• Egypt > History > 640-1250 > Sources
• Manuscripts, Arabic (Papyri)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-503) and indexes.

Language (note)

• In English; text of papyri in Arabic with English translation.

Contents

• Machine generated contents note: pt. I DISCUSSION -- 1. The Egyptian Context: Geography and History -- 1.1. One land -- 1.2. The Nile -- 1.3. Irrigation and water distribution -- 1.4. Flora and fauna -- 1.5. The Fayyum -- 1.6. The pre-Islamic political and administrative structure -- 1.6.1. Political and administrative developments -- 1.6.2. The economy -- 1.6.3. Arabia and Egypt -- 2. Arab Egypt: The First Fifty Years -- 2.1. The Arab conquest of Egypt -- 2.2. Continuous vigilance -- 2.3. Controlling Egypt's might -- 2.4. Post-conquest Muslim rule and government -- 2.5. Arab settlement in the Egyptian countryside -- 2.6. The administrative structure -- 2.7. The fifty-year about-turn -- 2.8. Conclusion -- 3. The Second Fifty Years: Consolidation and Reform -- 3.1. The administrative context -- 3.2. Dramatis personae -- 3.2.1. The Amir -- 3.2.2. Najid b. Muslim -- 3.2.3.Àbd Allah b. As'ad -- 3.2.4. Jarid b. As'ad -- 3.2.5. Local power: village headmen, estate-holders, and other local powerbrokers.
• Contents note continued: 3.2.6. Muslim taxpayers -- 3.3. Taxes and taxation -- 3.3.1. The system -- 3.3.2. Sadaqa and zakat -- 3.4. Conclusion: a changing model or changing the model? -- 4. Beyond Words -- 4.1. The power of writing -- 4.2. Technical aspects of the letters -- 4.3. Layout, orthography, and epistolary formulae -- 4.4.A community of literati? -- 4.5. The added value of the written word -- 4.6. Public writing: government communication and state consolidation -- 4.7. Conclusion -- 5. Conclusion -- pt. II THE TEXTS -- Note on the Orthography and Grammar of the Papyri -- 1. Concerning a letter from the amir -- 2. Request for taxes from Àbd Allah's district -- 3. Request for deliveries in kind -- 4. Collecting taxes in kind -- 5. Order from the amir concerning the delivery of grapes -- 6. Concerning a forwarded letter -- 7. Returning a fugitive and mules -- 8. Instructions to collect sadaqa and zakat -- 9. Announcing a delivery -- 10. Letter related to administrative matters.
• Contents note continued: 11. Fragment of a letter from Najid b. Muslim -- 12. Concerning some urgent business -- 13. Standing guarantor -- 14. Deliveries of oil from some villages -- 15.Organization of the delivery of oil -- 16. Concerning an irrigation canal -- 17. Assigning water to Narmuda -- 18. Letter requesting several deliveries -- 19. Request to deliver some produce -- 20. Request to buy fifteen dinars worth of wheat -- 21. Concerning an injustice and the payment of taxes -- 22. About the collection of jizya -- 23.Organizing the tax collection -- 24. Concerning a loan -- 25. Request for a deposit -- 26. Concerning the repayment of a debt -- 27. An order for veils -- 28. Purchase of radish oil -- 29. Purchase of different commodities -- 30. Letter related to tax collection -- 31. Petition for a fugitive -- 32. Sheep trade with Alexandria -- 33. Beginning of a letter to 'Abd Allah b. As'ad -- 34. Letter from 'Abd Allah b. As'ad -- 35. Restoring tax-collecting rights.
• Contents note continued: 36. Reporting on the completion of a tax collection -- 37. Letter from Najid b. Muslim to Sahl b. Habib -- 38. Letter to one of Najid's scribes -- 39. Letter from one of Najid's scribes.

Call Number

JFD 17-3119

ISBN

• 9780199673902
• 019967390X

LCCN

2013953486

OCLC

881279938

Author

Sijpesteijn, Petra.

Title

Shaping a Muslim state : the world of a mid-eighth-century Egyptian official / Petra M. Sijpesteijn.

Publisher

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Oxford studies in Byzantium

Oxford studies in Byzantium

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-503) and indexes.

Language

In English; text of papyri in Arabic with English translation.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Research Call Number

JFD 17-3119