IFAO

The weapon is a privileged vector of technological progress, but it also remarkably reveals the exchanges that took place between the Muslim Middle East and Western Europe in the 6th/12th centuries. The Franks and the Muslims’ weapons tended to standardize, even if several types of weapons always coexisted on the battle fields, and if Muslims as well as Franks kept their specificities. The evolution of three weapons is here analyzed: helmets, maces and amours. The Western helmets tended to be thicker and heavier. Those of the Muslims, which were quite as various in form and constitution, also appeared to become more and more effective. The Arabic texts show that the Muslims added a miġfar to them, a typically Eastern (but not unknown in Western Europe) mail curtain or a cap of mail like the one which the Western fighters used to wear. The maces, which were particularly appreciated by the Muslim Turkish riders, spread in Western Christianity, perhaps after their adoption by the Templars, even if the influence of the riders from the steppes of Eastern Europe cannot be ignored. Various types of armour coexisted in the Frank and Muslim armies. Once again, the ones did not hesitate to make theirs the weapons of the others.

Archaeological research conducted by the Ifao on the eastern walls of Fatimid Cairo has brought forth new scientific evidence for the presence of a Fatimid mud brick surrounding wall. Fragments of the town wall indicate a continuity of the fortification from Badr al-Ǧamālī (1087-1092 ad.) along the entire eastern part of Islamic Cairo. This town wall remained preserved until the period of Maqrīzī, when there is mentioned an area known as “Bayn al-Surayn;” known as the zone “between both walls.” Our observations, yet unpublished, make clear the stylistic practices with regard to the Fatimid fortifications of Cairo. The enclosure wall of Badr al-Ǧamālī is interspersed by towers and quadrangular supports, only the towers belonging to the gates of Bāb al-Futūh and Bāb Zuwayla comprise of semicircular elements.

Stone domes of Cairo, built throughout the Mamluk period represent one of the most significant features of Cairean construction techniques used during the 14th to 17th centuries. The stone dome of Emir Khayerbek’Mausoleum, constructed between 1502 and 1520 illustrates the high degree of technical skill needed as well as demonstrating architectural and artistic ability. A new survey and field study of the dome has enabled the author to shed new light on the building’s structure, construction materials and decorative plan. Such a survey makes possible the identification and illustration of important yet previously undocumented building techniques. Among these techniques is an understanding of how the builders organised the use of iron cramps to connect together the stone courses of the dome as well as the arrangement of the inclined mortar joints linking together the value of the keystone and the use of compression. Another technique and moreover an important theme of enquiry since the project’s inception is the association between the structure itself and decorative elements such as the sculpted detail on the extrados. These new findings enable us to formulate a hypothesis for the construction phase of the building and to understand with greater detail the synthetic approach of the builders as well as their virtuosity in design techniques.

Two arabic papyruses, the first one dated from 42/662 and the second one dated from 57/676 reveal the existence of a lunar era with sunny monthes. This lunar era was used in juridic acts.

This paper presents a unique testimony with regard to the political and religious relationships between medieval Yemen and India. A document preserved in the Yemeni archives of the Rasulid Sultanate (1229-1454) enumerates 46 Indian cities in which Muslim predicators and judges were annually sponsored by the Rasulid Dynasty. These communities are predominantly situated in coastal regions, from Gujarat to Coromandel. The establishment of the Rasulid patronage on these Indian Muslim communities can be directly associated with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. This situation allowed the Rasulid Sultan to exert a wider influence on the Muslim population living on the shores of the Indian Ocean. This patronage and influence remained in some coastal cities around Malabar until it was challenged by the conquests of the Delhi Sultanate at the end of the 14th century. A letter sent from Calicut to the Rasulid Sultan in 1393 AD illustrates the situation. This article provides an annotated translation from Arabic into French of two documents outlining these events.

This article will consider attribution problems raised by the coinage of the last Zayyanids of Tlemcen. The discussion is in response to fresh numismatic data as well as a restudy of chronicles concerning political relations between Marinids and Nasrids on the one hand, and Zayyanids and Ottomans on the other. Emphasis is given to a group of gold coins issued by the Zayyanids under the Ottoman Suzerainty during the first half of the 16th century. These coins bear in their legends reference to both political authorities: on one face the name of the Zayyanid and on the other face the name of the Ottoman Sultan.

It is on this issue that controversy between numismatists and historians exists. The coins concerned were initially attributed to the Marinids; the main criterion for the attribution was based on the political alliance contracted, according to Ibn Ḫaldūn, between the Nasrid Muḥammad III (701-708/1302-1309) and the Marinid Sultan Abū l-Rabīʿ (708-710/1308-1310). This alliance led, according to H. Lavoix, to a monetary association between the two rulers. However some decades later, a different attribution was advanced by H. Hazard for the coins in question. Doubt concerning the accuracy of these attributions continues among scholars and therefore the aim of this paper is to reconsider these attributions and discuss their historical and numismatic criteria.

This article investigates the issue of diplomacy in wartime, with specific reference to an instance concerning a letter from the Mamluk embassy to the Ilkhan Ġazān (701/1302). This letter was in response to an earlier missive from the Mongol ruler. According to two Arabic sources, this embassy led to an open discussion between the Mamluk ambassador (al-Muǧīrī) and the Ilkhan Ġazān. The words used by the Ilkhan take the form of a violent invective toward the Mamluks, blaming them for their immoral attitudes and negative behaviour. Al-Muǧīrī, the Mamluk messenger, counted “the insult” delivered by the Mongol ruler with an even more vindictive speech. Analysis of such behaviour, although appearing in the sources as spontaneous and violent in nature, allows us access to the mechanisms of expression and hostility within a diplomatic context as well as the political discourse underlining this specific situation.

In this two part article, the author firstly analyses four published Mamluk chancellery manuals in terms of topics, organisation, their relationship to other works, and usefulness to modern historians. Secondly, evidence from these manuals and chronicles will be used to argue that diplomatic and ceremonial etiquette in the Mamluk Sultanate could be read by contemporary observers. This enabled the readers to understand important information with regard to politics both within the Sultanate itself and how the Mamluks approached relations with outsiders.

This study focuses on the question of form and protocol that underline “the written connections” between the Mamluks and the Chinggisids of the Golden Horde. Our aim is to establish if the chancellery rules of the Jochids influenced the Mamluks and whether we are entitled to speak of a “cross-influence” between the Turkic, Mongols and Arabic epistolary practices of the time. The address to the khan by the sultans was governed by a strict set of rules. In order to shed light on these structures, the author wishes to make use of a corpus of letters that have until now remained an under exploited source. Although this source comprises of copied letters, it is reliable enough to enable us to recover part of the correspondence between the Muslim rulers. Moreover, it informs us about models and forms used by the chancellery secretaries, when constructing such diplomatic letters. This corpus is made of abstracts from chancellery handbooks written by three kuttāb al-inšā’ of the Mamluk Saltanate: al-Taʿrif fī-l-muṣṭalaḥ al-šarīf by Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī (d. 749/1349), al-Taṯqif fī-l-taʿrif by Taqī al-dīn Ibn Nāẓir al-Ǧayš (d. 786/1384) and the Ṣubḥ al-aʿšā fī ṣinaʿat al-inšā’ by al-Qalqašandī (d. 821/1418).

This article explores the extent to which the Islamic diplomatic practice of elevatio has permeated the chanceries of the Malay world in South East Asia. This honorific ‘elevation’ of a name or phrase from its normal position in the text to a more prominent position on the document, is described by V. Ménage in his seminal article published in 1985. In fact, no ‘true’ examples of elevatio can be found in the letters written in Malay, and although numerous examples illustrating the honorific elevation of the name of God can be documented in Malay seals from all over the archipelago, this practice appears to stem from a different source of authority. Nonetheless, a clear example of elevatio in a letter in Arabic from Sultan Alauddin Johan Sayah of Aceh serves to confirm that during the mid 18th century, the royal chancery of Aceh was fully aware of both principle and practice of this diplomatic nicety. Especially significant is the implication that different diplomatic traditions were deemed appropriate for documents in different languages issued from the same chancery, an important factor for consideration in any study of the diplomatic conventions of the Islamic world.