Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World. From Constantinople to Baghdad, 500–1000 CE

Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World. From Constantinople to Baghdad, 500–1000 CE
Contents
List of Figures, Graphs, and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Notes on Transliteration, Names, and Dates
Preface and Acknowledgments
Map of Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Introduction
Political and Administrative Connections
Economic Connections
Social and Cultural Connections
Bibliography
Part I. Political and Administrative Connections
1 Egypt in the Age of Justinian: Connector or Disconnector?
Introduction: Egypt within the Empire
Imperial Integration
Networks of Exchange
Urban and Rural Commercialization: Contrasting Perspectives
Egyptian Large Estates in Context
Egyptians within the Empire
From Connection to Disconnection
Conclusion: Making Egyptian History Roman
Bibliography
2 At the Crossroads of Regional Settings: Egypt, 500–1000 CE
Seventh-Century Egypt: Population and Prosperity
The Red Sea and Arabia
Egypt and the Caliphate
Egypt and Muslim North Africa
The Mediterranean World
The Emergence of a Local Muslim Identity
Conclusion
Bibliography
3 The Frontier Zone at the First Cataract before and at the Time of the Muslim Conquest (Fifth to Seventh Centuries)
Introduction
Syene/Aswān as a Military Fortress?
The Limitanei in Times of Peaceful Relations with Blemmyes and Noubades (Fifth to Sixth Centuries)
Sasanians in Southern Egypt (Seventh Century)
Blemmyes and Noubades Penetrating the Border Region and Beyond (Sixth to Seventh Centuries)
Conclusion
Bibliography
4 Islamic Historiography on Early Muslim Relations with Nubia
The Nubian–Egyptian Treaty: Historical and Documentary Sources
The So-Called Treaty of Miṣr
Diplomacy and Trade: A Second/Eighth-Century Arabic Letter to the King of Nubia
Muslim Historiography: A Rewriting of History to the Advantage of Muslims
Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam
Al-Balādhurī
Al-Maqrīzī
Conclusion
Bibliography
5 Local Tradition and Imperial Legal Policy under the Umayyads: The Evolution of the Early Egyptian School of Law
Egyptian Law under the Umayyads, between Theory and Practice
The Early Egyptian Legal Milieu
Were Egyptian Jurists Isolated?
Egyptian Legal Practices Compared to Other Regional Procedures
Egypt’s Integration into an Imperial Legal Framework
Official Instructions
Imperial Legal Policy
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
6 Ibn Ṭūlūn’s Pacification Campaign: Sedition, Authority, and Empire in Abbasid Egypt
The Samarran Military Presence in Egypt
Ibn Ṭūlūn’s Campaign and the Place of Violence
The Uneasy Turn to Religion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Part II. Economic Connections
7 Between Ramla and Fusṭāṭ: Archaeological Evidence for Egyptian Contacts with Early Islamic Palestine (Eighth–Eleventh Centuries)
Introduction
Artifacts as Indicators of Commercial Contacts and Migrations
Ramla and Fusṭāṭ: Urban Innovations in Palestine and Egypt
Water Supply
Urban Zoning and Ethnic Composition: The Creation of Multicultural Cities
Decline and Collapse
Conclusion: Egypt and Palestine in the Early Islamic Period
Bibliography
8 Egypt’s Connections in the Early Caliphate: Political, Economic, and Cultural
Managing Egypt: The Caliph’s Perspective
Egypt’s Strategic Position
The Local and the Central
Caliphal Investments in Egypt
A Supra-Regional Commercial Network
Conclusion: Egypt’s Economy and Its Integration in the Caliphate
Bibliography
9 Trading Activities in the Eastern Mediterranean through Ceramics between Late Antiquity and Fatimid Times (Seventh–Tenth/Eleventh Centuries)
Introduction
The Late Roman Amphora 7 from Egypt
The Bag-Shaped Amphora from Egypt
Egyptian Wares Exported to the Near East and Beyond
Table Wares from Egypt
Ceramic Finds from Isṭabl ʿAntar
Conclusion
Bibliography
Part III. Social and Cultural Connections
10 The Destruction of Alexandria: Religious Imagery and Local Identity in Early Islamic Egypt
Introduction
The Past: Arguing for Divine Endorsement
The Present: A City Impossible to Restore
The Future: Apocalyptic Expectations
Conclusion
Bibliography
11 Scribal Networks, Taxation, and the Role of Coptic in Marwanid Egypt
Introduction
A Trilingual Environment
Coptic Entagia
A Question of Transmission
The Late Seventh- and Early Eighth-Century Context
Appendix
Bibliography
12 A Changing Position of Greek? Greek Papyri in the Documentary Culture of Early Islamic Egypt
Language Shift as Cultural Change
Greek in Egypt
Quantifying Greek in Egypt’s Papyrological Landscape in the Seventh Century
Greek and Other Languages in the Corpus
The Disappearance of Greek
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
13 Regional Diversity in the Use of Administrative Loanwords in Early Islamic Arabic Documentary Sources (632–800 CE): A Preliminary Survey
Introduction
Loanwords in Documentary Arabic
Loanwords only Attested in Arabic Documents from Egypt (640–800 CE)
Loanwords Attested in Documents from Egypt and Other Regions (640–800)
Loanwords Only Attested Outside Egypt (640–800 CE)
Imperial Center and Periphery: Interplay of Regional vs. Transregional Loanwords
Bibliography
14 Babylon/Qaṣr al-Shamʿ: Continuity and Change at the Heart of the New Metropolis of Fusṭāṭ
Introduction
The Foundation of Fusṭāṭ: Early Islamic Archaeology in Old Cairo
Urban Layout, the Mosque of ʿAmr, the Foundation of Churches, and the Place of the Copts in the New City
Self-Organizing Aspects of Fusṭāṭ: Industrial Activity
Conclusion
Bibliography
15 Utilizing Non-Muslim Literary Sources for the Study of Egypt, 500–1000 CE
Terminology
Historical Texts
Hagiography
Apocalyptic Sermons
Bibliography
Index