IFAO

Dans une société égyptienne ottomane très cosmopolite, un individu est défini par son statut social et son métier, puis par ses convictions religieuses. L’élite copte du xviiie siècle, suivant un usage aussi bien chrétien que musulman, met à profit l’essor économique de la province pour redistribuer une partie des fortunes acquises au profit de l’Église et de leurs coreligionnaires.

In a very cosmopolitan Egyptian Ottoman society, an individual is defined by his social status and profession, and then by his religious beliefs. The Coptic elite of the 18th century, following both Christian and Muslim usage, takes advantage of the province’s important economic development to redistribute the acquired wealth for the benefit of the Church and their coreligionists.

This article is an attempt to place the history of the Copts into a broader context, that of Ottoman history and shows that Coptic history is closely linked to Egyptian history. Based on two sharia court cases, we can explain not only the period of transformation in Coptic history but also the history of Egypt at the end of the 16th century, which completed at the middle of 17th century. On the other hand, the article shows how the sources of the courts can be supplemented with Coptic sources, and that to better understand the 17th century, it would be necessary to use both of these sources. The two court cases studied here are only comprehensible when Coptic sources are taken into consideration.

This article is inscribed in the field of graffitology and it presents the study of a corpus which still largely unknown. Collected by the Japanese mission in Sinai (Dir. M. Kawatoko) between 2001 and 2005, the Christian Arab graffiti present in large numbers in the south of the peninsula, had never delivered their contents. The study of these sources, from the point of view of forms, onomastics and paleography, as well as historical and epigraphic contextualization, shed a light on the history of Eastern Christianity in the region. The exploitation of the data makes it possible to outline the profile of these Christian pilgrims converging on Mount Sinai and informs about the frequentation of the roads at the Abbasid and Fatimid times.

Cet article présente un dossier inédit de documents concernant les chrétiens de Damas à la fin du ixe siècle. Conservés au moyen de leur copie dans deux manuscrits tous deux datables approximativement du xe-xie siècle, ces neuf documents rédigés en arabe ont été produits à l’occasion d’un conflit au sein de l’Église melkite de Syrie en 277/890‑891. Il ressort de l’analyse que David, évêque métropolitain de Damas, a lui-même réuni ces documents à charge contre son adversaire Siméon, patriarche d’Antioche. La plainte de David de Damas aux deux autres patriarches, Élie de Jérusalem et Michel ­d’Alexandrie, contre Siméon d’Antioche, est éditée et traduite en français en annexe de l’article.

This paper presents an unpublished dossier of documents related to the Christians of Damascus in the late 9th century. Preserved through their copy in two manuscripts ­datable to the 10th or 11th century, these nine documents written in Arabic were issued on the ­occasion of a conflict that happened among the Melkite Church in Syria in 277/890‑891. The ­documents prove to have been gathered by David the metropolitan bishop of Damascus, against his adversary Simeon the patriarch of Antioch. The complaint of David of Damascus against Simeon of Antioch, addressed to the two other patriarchs, Elias of Jerusalem and Michael of Alexandria, is edited and translated into French as an appendix to this article.

When Western Syriac literature designates the Christian Arabs (ṭayyōyē krisṭyōnē), it is ­often through a ternary expression, the « Tanūkōyē, ʿAqūlōyē and Ṭūʿōyē », in variable order. These people (ʿammē) played a very significant role during the second civil war (60‑72/680-692) within the Syriac Orthodox Church, as it is starting to consider the Muslim alterity. At this ­specific time, a homonym bishopric is attested, especially under Georges’ authority (d. 105/724), one of the main intellectuals of this time. These populations seem to have lived in « the Occident » (then forming the ǧund of Qinnasrīn) and in the post-Roman Upper Mesopotamia (the Ǧazīra) during the Umayyad period. The Tanūḫ (Tanūkōyē) are defined as an Iraqi community partially settled in northern Syria, but the period of this migration, traditionally dated to the proto-Byzantine era, is still indeterminate. The two other words are less clear: the ʿAqūlōyē are related to the people of al‑Kūfa (the expression is almost certainly post‑Hiǧra) while the Ṭūʿōyē would correspond to ancient groups from the same area. Our hypothesis is that the moving of these Iraqi ʿammē, designated by this ternary standardized ethnonym (they are not tribes in the sense of arabic nasab) to the Syrian space results from a transfer policy under Muʿāwiya (d. 60/680). It is most likely in this context that they might have been affiliated to the episcopal miaphysit nomenclature, at a time where it was possible to participate in the Believers’ movement while including one’s self in the Antiochene Church.

Eastern Christianity has been starkly influenced by the Ottoman rule. With the dominant power of the Greek Patriarch over the Chalcedonian communities in the Arab world, these communities have been reconstructed, and many struggles and conflicts erupted.

This paper tackles an aspect of these struggles among Christian communities in Egypt during the 17th century, as represented in a conflict between the monks of Saint Catherine Monastery in Sinai and the Melkite patriarch of Egypt. It examines how the local powers intervened in this conflict, and how the whole narrative has been formulated in legal and sharia texts.

تأثرت المسيحية الشرقية بشدة تحت الحكم العثماني، بعد أن ترسخت سيطرة البطريرك اليوناني على معظم الطوائف المسيحية الخلقيدونية في العالم العربي؛ ونتج عن ذلك إعادة تشكل المسيحية الشرقية، ونشوب صراعات ونزاعات عديدة بين هذه الطوائف، لأسباب عدة من بينها مقاومة الهيمنة اليونانية. وتعالج هذه الورقة أحد جوانب هذه الصراعات بين الطوائف المسيحية في مصر، من خلال نزاع بين رهبان دير سانت كاترين بسيناء وبطريرك النصارى الملكية بمصر في القرن السابع عشر، وكيفية استدعاء السلطات المحلية لحسم هذا الصراع، وصياغة أركان هذا النزاع في نصوص قانونية وفقهية.

Cet article retrace quinze années de recherches archéologiques et historiques sur les sultanats islamiques en Éthiopie de l’époque médiévale. Après d’intenses prospections dans différentes régions où étaient localisées des ruines de cités islamiques, de l’Éthiopie orientale à l’actuel Somaliland, la recherche s’est focalisée sur la région de l’Ifāt en Éthiopie centrale. Plusieurs sites urbains y ont été repérés et l’un d’entre eux, Nora, a été fouillé, livrant des vestiges (habitations, mosquées, cimetière) datés des xive et xve siècles. Enfin, une découverte majeure, celle de la nécropole composée de tombes épigraphiées de membres de la dynastie des Walasmaʿ, dont les textes sont publiés ici, a permis de localiser avec certitude la capitale du sultanat de l’Ifāt au xive siècle. La configuration de cette capitale, Awfāt, correspond de manière très étroite avec la description qu’en a faite Abū al-Fidā’ au début du xive siècle.

This article recounts fifteen years of archaeological and historical research on the Islamic Sultanates of Medieval Ethiopia. After intense surveys in different areas from Eastern Ethiopia to present-day Somaliland that revealed the ruins of Islamic cities, the research focused on the Ifāt region in Central Ethiopia. Several urban sites were spotted there and one of them, Nora, was investigated, showing vestiges (houses, mosques, cemetery) dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. Finally, a major discovery, that of a necropolis composed of epigraphic tombs of members of the Walasmaʿ dynasty, whose texts are published here, made it possible to locate the 14th century capital of the Ifāt Sultanate. The spatial organization of this site, Awfāt, closely matches the description made by the Arab writer Abū al-Fidā’ in the early 14th century.

Our approach is based on tracking the Islamic Western merchants (North Africa and Muslim Spain) presence in the Eastern trade from Alexandria to China during the late Middle Age. Trade activity goes back to ancient times and flourished in the Red Sea during the second half of the 5th/11th century thanks to some objective factors, such as troubles along territorial roads (Banū Hilāl), maritime routes (Normans and Crusaders) and the spread of antisemitism spreading in the Mediterranean Western basin. For that reason, the “Geniza” ­letters are considered as a prominent historical source until the beginning of the 7th/13th century. However, the documents show some limitations, since they mention Jewish merchants only. Yet the prosperity of the “Karimi” trade revealed the existence of a community of Maghribi origin whose members had a decisive role in the 15th century trade. They were conscious of a crisis in the spice trade, which was of no use for the classical world till the advent of the Portuguese in the early 16th century. The latters’ presence allowed many of them to remain in the Indian Ocean islands and even in China. They are mentioned in travelogues, especially the most famous one, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa.

تعتمد مقاربتنا في هذا المقال على تتبع ظاهرة حضور تجار الغرب الإسلامي (شمال إفريقيا والأندلس) في تجارة الشرق من الإسكندرية إلى الصين طوال القرون الأخيرة من العصر الوسيط. وهي تجارة قديمة قدم الحضور البشري بأطراف العالم المتوسطي لكنها تكثفت بالبحر الأحمر مع النصف الثاني من القرن 5هـ/11م لعوامل موضوعية منها اضطراب الطرق البرية، الهلاليون، البحرية، النورمان والصليبيون، ومعاداة الوجود اليهودي بالحوض الغربي للمتوسط. لذلك تعتبر رسائل الجنيزا جد هامة حتى مطلع القرن 7هـ/13م لكنها لا تتحدث إلا عن تجار يهود. إلا أن ازدهار تجارة الكارم أظهر وجود جالية تجارية ذات أصول مغربية بل ومنطلقة من المغرب أثبتت انخراطها الفعلي في تجارة القرن 9هـ/15م ووعيها بأزمة التوابل التي كانت لغير فائدة العالم الكلاسيكي وحتى قدوم البرتغال مطلع القرن 10هـ/16م. إن حضور هؤلاء سمح لكثيرين بالمواصلة في جزر المحيط الهندي وحتى الصين، تذكرهم كتب الرحالة وأشهرهم ابن بطوطة.

La corrélation entre sources écrites et mobiliers archéologiques est une méthode qui s’avère pertinente pour mesurer les flux commerciaux en Méditerranée occidentale durant le haut Moyen Âge. La contribution qui suit s’appuie sur une approche archéométrique pluridisciplinaire (pétrographie, géochimie, chimie organique) des céramiques, et permet de cerner productions et échanges. Grâce aux études typologiques et archéométriques des mobiliers archéologiques il est possible, à la lumière d’une nouvelle lecture des textes judéo-arabes, d’ébaucher des circuits commerciaux pour le trafic des conteneurs et vaisselles polychromes provenant du domaine islamique et circulant entre Sicile, Ifrīqiya, Égypte et Provence.

The correlation between written sources and archaeological finds is a relevant method for measuring trade in the western Mediterranean during the early Middle Ages. This paper is based on a multidisciplinary archaeometric approach (petrography, geochemistry, organic chemistry) of ceramics, which allowed us to identify productions and commercial exchanges. The typological and archaeometric studies of archaeological finds have made possible, in the light of a new reading of Judeo-Arabic texts, to sketch out commercial circuits for the traffic of containers and glazed pottery coming from the Islamic lands and circulating between Sicily, Ifrīqiya, Egypt and Provence.