For historians of the Middle East, medieval documents and manuscripts are integral resources to better understand the social and intellectual milieu of their objects of study. Islamic manuscript archives and repositories are often quite challenging to access; an even greater challenge is the ability to read and analyze the documents themselves. For the past eight years, and during my 2024 ACOR-NEH Fellowship, I have spent a significant amount of time pursuing documentary and textual research at the Center for Documents and Manuscripts (CDM) at the University of Jordan while finishing my book project, Blasphemy (Sabb al-Rasūl) as a Legal Category in Early and Medieval Islamic History. Located within several blocks of ACOR, the CDM contains more than 30,000 manuscripts from the Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras. In addition to preserving physical manuscripts, for the past thirty years the CDM has also pursued another important project: digitizing manuscript collections from across the Levant and North Africa. With the onset of the Arab Spring and Syrian civil war, and now with ongoing violence in Lebanon, many of these regional collections are either no longer accessible or entirely destroyed, making the CDM’s digitized collection all the more an indispensable resource for researchers. 

Colleagues in other fields often ask me how I read and analyze manuscripts and documentary records in order to deduce historically relevant information. How does one determine a manuscript’s date of creation, scribal history, and authorship? What codicological clues does one use, in terms of the document’s material construction, handwriting, and illumination in order to date a manuscript and determine whether it is authentic? I address these questions in a three-part series. In my first Insights essay, I addressed the material construction of Ottoman codices and how historians examine certain aspects of medieval book construction in order to date a manuscript. In my second, I examined how researchers use calligraphic script identification and manuscript illumination to deduce the age and geographic origins of a manuscript, with special focus on the Mamluk era. In both of the aforementioned essays, I focused on books as historical objects, which often contain a plethora of clues that allow us to pursue accurate dating. But what happens when one only has a fragment of a page or a documentary record that is not part of a book? Such a scenario is far more common, especially in eras predating the Mamluk Empire, such as the Ayyubid and Fatimid eras. In this third installment, I shall address how historians use handwriting, text format, and material construction of fragments to estimate the age of a manuscript, with special attention to the Ayyubid and Fatimid eras.

Dating Documents Based on Material Construction

An important clue when attempting to identify the era and region in which a document was produced is examining the material construction. In Figure 1, the first attribute that jumps out to a trained historian is the fact that the artifact consists of porous and fibrous cross-laid strips. This texture indicates that the artifact is not made from paper, but rather from papyrus. Papyrus strips are paper-like, self-adhering sheets made from the stalk of the papyrus plant, which is indigenous to Africa, including Egypt. Papyrus was used as a material upon which to write in a variety of local languages in Egypt from about 3000 BCE to the 10^th century CE. After Alexander the Great seized Egypt from the Achaemenid Empire in the 4^th century BCE, Greek emerged as the primary written language of government administration, literature, and private document production. It remained so during the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine eras and was only replaced with Arabic in the 7^th century, after the Arab conquest. We also know that after the 10^th century CE, paper become the predominant material for writing in North Africa (for more on this topic, see Khan 2006; Goldberg and Krakowski 2019). Hence, based on the fact that the document is written on papyrus and that it is written in Arabic, we can deduce that it was most likely produced between the 7^th and 10^th centuries in Egypt. It is also possible that the papyrus was produced in Egypt for export and the document was written elsewhere.

Dating Documents Based on Vocabulary and Format

The vocabulary used in a document can also provide clues to confirm usage and dating, especially if patterns exist across a specific genre. The document in Figure 2 is a Fatimid Islamic iqrār, or security agreement. In the Fatimid and Ayyubid eras, Islamic security agreements were written using a very specific battery of formulary in the same sequence and with specific word placement on the page, similar to a modern-day administrative form (for more on this document type see Müller 2008; Lufti 1983). 

In the aforementioned iqrār, we see that the first line constitutes the basmala, or invocation to seek blessings from God. The block of text then begins with the word ‘aqarra’ , followed by specific formulary identifying the litigants, the amount owed, and payment plan, followed by a promise to pay off said debt on the part of the debtor (binding debt clause). On the last line of block text, the date of the agreement is recorded in the bottom left corner, followed by two short lines in the bottom right corner identifying the witnesses (witness confirmation clause), albeit now faded or erased. We know from other social history sources that iqrār documents in this specific format were not produced until the Ayyubid era (Ackerman-Lieberman 2007; Thung 1996). Hence, moving back to Figure 1 above, we are now able to observe some additional clues in dating our text: 1) that the document begins with the basmala and the word ‘aqarra’, the identifying formulary for iqrār documents; and 2) that the document appears to have the date written by the scribe on the last line in the far left corner, albeit faded to the point of partial legibility, as Rajab AH 312, which converts to 924 CE. Bringing together all of the aforementioned evidence on document construction and document vocabulary, we can say that the facts suggest without internal contradiction that the document is an Ayyubid or early Fatimid iqrār record produced toward the beginning of the 10^th century CE. 

In the document in Figure 2, the text and lines are straight and somewhat compressed, with very little space in between each line. One also can observe several areas where erasure and possible re-drafting has been attempted, such as the witness confirmation section on the bottom right corner. On the back of the document is also another unrelated draft that appears to be writing practice of some sort. This is quite different from, for example, the document in Figure 3.

In this Fatimid-era document, the text is curvilinear. We also observe ample spacing with no visible erasures and no drafted documents on the back. We know from the patterns that we have observed in studying manuscript genres from the Ayyubid and Fatimid eras that texts intended for public presentation or for an audience with the caliph and his court were often written in curvilinear script with ample spacing and in specific calligraphic styles. Such is the case in this letter in Figure 3, which was meant to be read to the Fatimid caliph (for more on this topic, see Rustow 2020). Writing materials were expensive and hence needed to be used economically, so documents written for internal administrative purposes, such as court records, were often written in small and economically spaced script, with both sides of the paper used (with no necessary link between the record written on the recto and the record written on the verso) (for a detailed analysis of handwriting and text placement in this context, see Rustow 2019). Therefore, in this case, we can deduce that the document in Figure 2 was likely either a court record or a scribe’s draft not intended for public display or performative reading. 

Manuscript fragments and individual documentary records, not just books, can be decoded and analyzed for clues that tell us more about their content and the social environment in which they were constructed. Altogether, the material construction of a manuscript fragment, coupled with an awareness of the typical vocabulary, format, writing style, and spacing of specific genres, provide clues to the historian regarding the date and geographic origin of a medieval document or manuscript. Such fragments, when studied together with other primary sources, are enormously valuable resources for learning more about medieval societies. 

References

Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip Isaac. 2007. “A Partnership Culture: Jewish Economic and Social Life Seen through the Legal Documents of the Cairo Geniza.” PhD dissertation. Princeton University.

Khan, Geoffrey. 2006. Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Goldberg, Jessica and Eve Krakowski. 2019. “Introduction: A Handbook for Documentary Geniza Research in the Twenty-First Century.” Jewish History 32: 115–130.

Lutfi, Huda. 1983. “A Study of Six Fourteenth Century Iqrārs From al-Quds Relating to Muslim Women.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 26(3): 246–294.  

Müller, Christian. 2008. “Acknowledgement.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, edited by Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, and Everett Rowson, < http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_0166 >. Leiden: Brill.  

Rustow, Marina. 2019. “Fatimid State Documents.” Jewish History 32(2/4): 221–277.

Rustow, Marina. 2020. The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Thung, Michael. 1996. “Written Obligations from the 2^nd/8^th to the 4^th/10^th Century.” Islamic Law and Society 3(1): 1–12. 

Sarah Islam’s research focuses on the social and intellectual history of Islamic criminal law, and on how relations between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the medieval context affected the development of jurisprudence and legal institutional norms across all three communities, despite internal polemics often arguing otherwise. Her first book project, Blasphemy (Sabb al-Rasūl) as a Legal Category in Early and Medieval Islamic History, examines the evolution of blasphemy as a legal category among capital crimes in Islamic legal history. Her research has been supported by the Charlotte Newcombe Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright Program, and the American Center of Research, where she has been an ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellow (2015 – 2016) and ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 – 2023). Her academic work has been published by Sage, Brill, and Oxford University Presses.

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   للتنويه:  هنا يتوفر محاضرة توجيهية عن أرشيف أكور باللغة العربية

ACOR Proudly Presents:
“The ACOR Photo Archive: Mobilizing Digital Tools to Preserve Visual Heritage”
An ACOR Public Lecture by Dr. Jack Green and Jessica Holland on February 11, 2020

About the Lecture:

The ACOR Photo Archive contains rich collections of tens of thousands of photographs, but its reach also extends far beyond the images themselves. ACOR’s archival collections reflect the seismic shifts that have occurred in the region over the past 80 years, including early black-and-white photos of 1940s Amman, rare color slides of the technological and development boom of the 80s, and photographs of heritage sites that have since been damaged by conflict in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen in the last decade. Newly digitized, these images and their associated metadata provide an especially valuable frame of reference  with which to understand Jordanian heritage, demonstrating many applications within academic research and among cultural heritage professionals. In addition, given the rapid urban development Jordan has experienced within the past 30 years, the photos document social change in cities such as Amman and Aqaba and provide new generations access to alternative views of these places within living memory.  The ACOR Photo Archive Project is driven by the values of sustainability and accessibility, and in order to make ACOR’s archival efforts sustainable in the long term, the Project trains Jordanian graduates in photo digitization and hosts workshops attended by Jordanian national and international heritage institutions.  The ACOR Photo Archive Project is funded by the United States Department of Education (Title VI grant; 2016 – 2020).

A breakdown of the different sections is as follows: Project Introduction (1:49–8:40), Changes Over Time: From Excavation to Restoration (8:41–27:55), Interdisciplinary Collections (27:56–44:01), Collaboration (44:02–46:20), Re-use of Archive Photos (46:20–48:28), and Future Directions (48:28–50:19).

To download a high-resolution, linked PDF of the lecture presentation, please click here. 

Background: About the ACOR Photo Archive Project

The ACOR Photo Archive collections is interdisciplinary, featuring works of interest to a broad range of specializations including anthropology, architecture, urban studies, history and art history, conservation, economics, geography and cultural heritage studies. Each of the 25,000 photos online is described in detail, and the growing number of Arabic language references continue to improve bi-lingual search capabilities within the free, online database.  Please note you can read more online, search the collection yourself, and follow project highlights on Instagram.

About the Lecturers:

Jessica Holland is the ACOR Archivist. Her work specializes in Digital Curation and outreach activities as part of a long-term strategy to make ACOR’s significant archival holdings more accessible to the public.  Jessica’s background is in art history, curation and museums. Jessica received her B.A. from the University of Cambridge in History of Art (2013), and her M.A. from SOAS, University of London in Near and Middle Eastern Studies with Intensive Arabic, submitting her thesis within the digital humanities field (2018).

Jack Green joined ACOR as the Associate Director in October 2017. He supports ACOR’s activities, including the USAID SCHEP project. He also serves as the project director of the Temple of the Winged Lions Cultural Resource Management Initiative (TWLCRM) at Petra and co-Project Lead of the ACOR Photo Archive Project. Jack Green’s academic and professional background is in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, cultural heritage, and museums.  He was curator of Ancient Near East at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (2007–11), chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago (2011–15), and deputy director at the Corning Museum of Glass. Jack Green received his B.A. degree from the University of Liverpool (1999) and M.A. and Ph.D from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (2001, 2006 respectively).

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Blog and ACOR Youtube account. A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

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