IFAO

The Perspective of the Countryside in the Medieval Arab-Islamic World: The Ninth International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP) Conference 

(Programme hereafter)

The majority of papyri from the Arab-Islamic world relate to the countryside, yet most modern studies focus on cities. The ISAP IX Conference hopes to shift the attention from urban elites to rural realities by exploring what documentary sources can tell us about the perspective of the inhabitants of the countryside. Texts preserved on papyri and other writing surfaces include stories of villagers often in their own words rather than from the perspective of outsiders. These everyday documents written in Egyptian villages in Arabic, Coptic, Greek, and other languages allow us to study the economy, religion, family life, agriculture, administration, mentalities, culture and many other facets of life in the countryside. Documents written in the cities, such as the Geniza corpus, also reveal rich details of life in the Egyptian countryside. We encourage participants to approach these topics from an interdisciplinary angle: materials from related fields, such as archaeology, hold untapped potential for papyrology. Comparison with other pre-modern rural societies are also particularly welcome, including documents written outside Egypt and longue durée perspectives.

The Ninth ISAP Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Archaeology (Egyptology Department) of Fayoum University and be organized by the board of the ISAP and the Munich Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies. The conference will start on the morning of Monday, March 6, 2023, and continue through the afternoon of Thursday, March 9, 2023. The programme will include 20-minute lectures, evening lectures, and hopefully a field trip. Conference languages will be English, German, French and Arabic. However, all lectures will be given in English.

Conference Organizers

Lajos Berkes (New Testament Studies, HU Berlin); Ursula Hammed (Arabic and Islamic Studies, LMU Munich); Maher A. Eissa (Egyptology, Fayoum University); Andreas Kaplony (Arabic and Islamic Studies, LMU Munich); Marie Legendre (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh); Matt Malczycki (History, Auburn University); Marina Rustow (Near Eastern Studies and History, Princeton University); Naïm Vanthieghem (IHRT, Section arabe, CNRS Paris); Khaled Younes (University of Sadat City).

Generous Support by

Fayoum University, Faculty of Archaeology; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Central Administration/Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde/Lehrstuhl für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft; Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, Section arabe

Further Questions

If you have any further questions about the conference, please contact Andreas Kaplony (andreas.kaplony at lmu.de).

 

ISAP IX Conference 2023 Program (Download)

SUNDAY, 5 March 2023 (Fayoum University, Hotel of the Faculty of Tourism)

18:00 Opening

• Formal opening and reception

MONDAY, 6 MARCH 2023 (Fayoum University, Faculty of Archaeology)

9:00 - 10:30 Session 1: Welcome - Coptic Letters and Legends (Chair: Esther Garel)

• Atef Mansour (Fayoum University)/Andreas Kaplony (LMU Munich/ISAP): Welcome
• Christine Ayad (Fayoum University): Healing a Woman in Labor: Uncommon Miracle in Coptic Martyrdoms
• Rudeina Bayoumi (Fayoum University): Building a church: A late Coptic letter
• Vincent Walter (FU Berlin): "May the Lord establish him firmly upon his throne ...": The late Coptic bishop's letters
• Discussion

11:00 - 12:30 Session 2: Coptic Matters (Chair: Maher Eissa)

• Botros Elbaramosy (Alexandria University): العلاقة بين المسلمين والمسيحيين في الريف المصري خلال القرن 13 - دراسة تاريخية في مخطوطات تاريخ وسير البطاركة
• Anne Boud'hors (CNRS Paris), Ahmed Nakshara (Ain Shams University), Ahmed Nabil (University of Sadat City), Maher Eissa (Fayoum University): Edfu language transition from Coptic to Arabic: the testimony of unedited Coptic and Arabic ostraca: A first report of the IMHOTEP Project
• Wafaa Abdel Wahaab (Fayoum University): Coptic manuscripts and their inscribers in Fatimid Egypt
• Discussion

14:30 - 16:00: Session 3: Early Islam (Chair: Marie Legendre)

• Nils Purwins (FU Berlin): The Sasanians in Egypt and Bactria: Rulership at the edges of Ērānšahr and the connection to the mighty clan of the Mihrān
• Lucia Waldschütz (Princeton University): Surety contracts from Late Antique and Early Arab Egypt
• Stefanie Schmidt (FU Berlin): The kūrat Aswān under Early Muslim rule
• Élodie Mazy (University College London), Lajos Berkes (HU Berlin): A snapshot at the countryside of Hermopolis under the governorate of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ
• Discussion

16:30 - 18:00 Session 4: Living Together (Chair: Mathieu Tillier)

• Ahmed Farouk Zaafrany (Minia University): Countryside life in Ancient Egypt through Hieratic papyri
• Farouk Bouaziz (Tunis University): Bulğusūq in the 5th/11th century: A micro-historical analysis of some real-estate sale contracts
• Yossef Rapoport (University of London): The Arab protectors of southern Fayyum, 1015-1070 CE
• Discussion

20:00 Evening Lecture

• Tamer el-Leithy (Johns Hopkins University): The state’s other footprint: Communal concerns from the Egyptian countryside (11th-14th c.)

TUESDAY, 7 MARCH 2023 (Fayoum University, Faculty of Archaeology)

9:00 - 10:30 Session 5: Legal Matters (Chair: Tonio Sebastian Richter)

• Rocio Daga Portillo (LMU Munich): A Fāṭimid petition to al-Ḥākim bi-amr Allāh: Esoterics in a petition or a writing exercise?
• Tobias Scheunchen (University of Chicago): Emotions, Arabic scribal practices, and Islamic law in the Egyptian countryside: transforming personal conflicts into matters of law
• Rowida Fawzy (Luxor University): "She abandoned her husband": The marital issues in Coptic Thebes' society: O.Copt.Cair. 4530.88
• Discussion

11:00 - 12:30 Session 6: Administration Through Religious Institutions (Chair: Khaled Younes)

• Lev Weitz (Catholic University of America): The Arabic Documents of Dayr al-Naqlūn: A Preliminary Report
• Theresa Grabmaier (LMU Munich): The abbess Maṭrī in Arabic legal documents from late 12th century Toledo
• Yehoshua Frenkel: Ḥaram Documents regarding villagers and rural communities
• Discussion

14:30 - 16:00 Session 7: Production of Goods & Agricultural Struggles (Pt. 1) (Chair: Ursula Hammed)

• Ahmed Kamal (Centre of Documentation of Islamic and Coptic Antiquities): Agricultural partnership in the Islamic Egyptian countryside
• Tomasz Barański (University of Warsaw): The possession, tenancy and cultivation of land in pre-modern Nubia as seen through archaeological, literary and documentary sources
• Yusuf Umrethwala (Columbia University): “I did not purchase anything for him because of the prevailing hunger, and because food prices were higher in the countryside than Fusṭāṭ”: Egyptian famines in the 10th-12th centuries through the lens of the countryside
• Discussion

16:30 - 18:00 Session 8: Production of Goods & Agricultural Struggles (Pt. 2) (Chair: Andreas Kaplony)

• Undine Ott (GWZO Leipzig): Villagers under duress. Climate stress and labor coercion in the Mamluk Levant
• Mohamed Morsy (Helwan University), Ibrahim Al-Jamal (University of Sadat City): Kinds of oils and their uses in Egypt during the Islamic era
• Hazem Hussein Abbas Ali (Beni-Suef University, Egypt & Middle East College, Muscat): Reporting and investigating burglary and housebreaking: unpublished document from the Egyptian National Library
• Discussion

 

WEDNESDAY, 8 MARCH 2023 (Fayoum University, Faculty of Archaeology)

9:00 - 10:30 Session 9: Taxes (Chair: Yossi Rapoport)

• Mahmoud El Said (Souez Canal University): Pasture tax in the Egyptian countryside in light of the Arabic papyrus documents
• Stephanie Luescher, Marina Rustow (Princeton University): Fatimid tax receipts and the perspective of the Countryside
• Ahmed Nabil Maghraby (University of Sadat City): Fāṭimid letter of designation over construction work of certain estates of Alexandria
• Marie Legendre, Dalia Hussein (University of Edinburgh): The taxation and ownership of land in the Abbasid countryside: simple questions?
• Discussion

11:00 - 12:30 Session 10: Administration (Chair: Naïm Vanthieghem)

• Daisy Livingston (Durham University): The amir’s administration: documentary traces of the activities of Mamluk emirs in the Egyptian countryside
• Asmahan Abu-Alasaad (Egyptian National Library): The office of the Commander of the Faithful in the third Century AH: new papyri evidence
• Lorenzo Bondioli (University of Cambridge): Peasants, merchants, and taxation in post-Abbasid Egypt
• Discussion

14:30 - 16:00 Session 11: Archives (Chair: Louay Saied)

• Ursula Hammed, Michail Hradek (LMU Munich): Meet the Banū Balīṭ: A Coptic family from 9th century Tebtynis, their dossier, and their associates
• Naïm Vanthieghem (CNRS Paris): New insights into the archives of Fayum textile merchants
• Andreas Kaplony (LMU Munich): What's in an archive? On strategies to identify archives
• Leonora Sonego (LMU Munich): Paleographic similarity in document clusters
• Discussion

16:30 - 18:00 Session 12: Historiography and ISAP General Meeting (Chair: Lajos Berkes)

• Sebastian Richter (BBAW/FU Berlin): Al-Rāzī in the Egyptian countryside. A 9th-/10th-century Coptic archive of medical and alchemical manuscripts and its intellectual background
• Cornelia Römer (DAI Cairo): Nabulsi's "acqueducts" (ʿabbāra li-l-māʾ) in Lake Qaroun
• Mona Dorani (Bochum University): From Egypt to Artâs: Re-reading of Hilma Granqvist 's monographs
• Discussion
• ISAP General Meeting

THURSDAY, 9 MARCH 2023 (Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO), Cairo)

18:00 Evening Lecture

• Mathieu Tillier (Sorbonne Université): A Fatimid village in the Fayyum: Buljusūq according to papyrological sources

19:30 Poster Session and Reception

• Sobhi Bouderbala (University of Tunis), Joachim Le Bomin (IFAO), Julie Marchand (Université libre de Bruxelles & Royal Museums of Art and History): IFAO project "Villes en mutation”: presentation and call for participation
• Ekaterina Trepnalova (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts), Mehdy Shaddel (Leiden University): In the Vault: Inventorying Collections of Arabic Papyri, with a presentation of some newly found items

• Reception

Participants with no presentation

Mohamed Abd Ellatif (Mansoura University), Hadeer Belal (Cairo University & Egyptian Museum Cairo), Walaa El Mahdy (Ain Shams University), Rasha H. El-Mofatch (Ain Shams University), Esther Garel (Strasbourg University), Benedikt Hochwartner, Bashar Maaiah (Yarmouk University), Mai Mahmoud (Fayoum University), Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (Basel University), Salwa Abdel Meguid Mohamed, Nisreen Monir (Fayoum University), Haytham Qandeil (Ain Shams University), Muhammed Sarhan (Ain SHams University).