Suchergebnisse

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 ʿAlāʾim 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

This paper investigates the political culture of the Islamic East under Fatimid and Buwayhid rule (tenth-twelfth centuries) via relationships between patrons, clients, protégés, and partners. The main body of evidence I utilize are letters and petitions from the Cairo Geniza that employ the same specialized vocabulary of patron-client relationships one finds in Arabic histories of the period: idioms referring to the exchange of benefit, reciprocal service, protection, oversight, patronage, and loyalty. The Geniza letters, written without regard for posterity, suggest that these idioms were used well beyond the courts and were understood and deployed by men and women, the literate and illiterate, the important and the inconsequential. Yet the use of certain terms in Judaeo-Arabic also differs from their use in Arabic: some reflect devaluation over time, while others hardened into formulaic phrases. These differences suggest that some forms of patronage did not thrive beyond the hothouse of the court; viewed from another perspective, they also suggest that even outside courtly literature, one can retrieve fossils of older forms of patronage in the terms used to describe relationships between leaders and their followers as well as among people more nearly equal in station. A society's use of social metaphors reveals something of what its members value, what they choose to retain and perpetuate from the past, how they function in moments of crisis, and how successfully their rulers have managed to convince them of the legitimacy of the social and political order. Conversely, the vocabulary of patronage was a social technique that allowed Jews to conduct business, engage in politics and communal regulation, and to amass and retain followers in a variety of spheres, including that of the rabbinic academies who proffered the construction of Judaism that became hegemonic over the course of the Middle Ages. ; Este artículo aborda la cultura política del Oriente islámico bajo gobierno fatimí y buwayhí (siglos X al XII) a partir de las relaciones entre mecenas, clientes, protegidos y socios. Se centra en el análisis de cartas y peticiones de la Geniza de El Cairo que usan el mismo vocabulario especializado que las fuentes árabes históricas de la época a la hora de describir las relaciones entre patrón y cliente: expresiones que hacen referencia al intercambio de beneficios, servicios recíprocos, protección, supervisión, patronazgo y lealtad. Las cartas de la Geniza, escritas sin ningún afán de pasar a la historia, sugieren que esas expresiones circulaban fuera del contexto cortesano y que hombres y mujeres, letrados y analfabetos, gentes de alto y bajo rango, las entendían y las usaban. Aun así, el uso de ciertos términos en judeo-árabe y en árabe difiere: algunos términos parecen haber experimentado cierta erosión, mientras que otros parecen haberse convertido en meras fórmulas. Esas diferencias indican que algunas formas de patronazgo no prosperaron más allá del entorno puramente cortesano; por otro lado, también indican que se pueden encontrar antiguas formas de patronazgo fosilizadas en términos usados para describir las relaciones entre los líderes y sus seguidores, o entre gente de categorías sociales más próximas, incluso fuera de la literatura cortesana. El uso que una sociedad hace de las metáforas sociales pone de manifiesto lo que sus miembros valoran, los aspectos del pasado que deciden conservar y perpetuar, el modo en que funcionan en los momentos de crisis y la capacidad que sus gobernantes tienen de convencerles o no de la legitimidad del orden político-social. A su vez, el vocabulario del patronazgo fue una técnica social que permitió que los judíos llevaran sus negocios, tomaran parte activa en la normativa política y comunitaria, y acumularan y retuvieran seguidores en varias esferas distintas, incluida la de las academias rabínicas, una esfera en la que se gestó el judaísmo medieval hegemónico.

Main description: This volume explores forms of Jewish experience that span the period from antiquity to the present and encompass a wide range of textual, ritual, spatial, and visual materials. Chapters devote sustained attention to three key concepts—authority, diaspora, and tradition—that have long been central to the study of Jews and Judaism.