Projecting a New Empire: Formats, Social Meaning, and Mediality of Imperial Arabic in the Umayyad and Early Abbasid Periods

Eugenio Garosi

Published by De Gruyter 2022

Projecting a New Empire

Formats, Social Meaning, and Mediality of Imperial Arabic in the Umayyad and Early Abbasid Periods

Eugenio Garosi

Volume 42 in the series Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110740820

Overview
Contents

About this book

Seventh and eighth-century papyri, inscriptions, and coins constitute the main evidence for the rise of Arabic as a hegemonic language emerging from the complex fabric of Graeco-Roman-Iranian Late Antiquity. This volume examines these sources in order to gauge the social ecology of Arabic writing within the broader late antique continuum.

Starting from the functional interplay of Arabic with other languages in multilingual archives as well as the mediality of practices of public Arabic writing, the study correlates the rise of Arabic as an imperial language to social interactions: the negotiation between the Arab-Muslim imperial elite and non-Arabicized regional elites of the early Islamic empire. Using layout, formulae and technical terminology to trace common patterns and disruptions across sources from the Atlantic to Central Asia, the volume illuminates the distinctive formal varieties of official Umayyad and early Abbasid imperial documents compared to informal Arabic writings as well as to neighboring scribal traditions in other languages.

The volume connects documentary practices to broader imperial policies, opening an unprecedented window into the strategies of governance that lay at the core of the early Islamic empire.

Author / Editor information

Eugenio Garosi, University of Munich, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Note on Conventions Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
Maps Publicly Available Download PDF	XIX
Introduction
Becoming Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Semantics of Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Empires and Arab History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Views on Early Islamic History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
A Review of the Documentary Evidence and Coping with its Limitations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
Previous Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Approach and Methodology: Form over Substance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
The Definitional Trap: A Note on Terminology and Anachronism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Timeframe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Organization of this Study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
I Towards an Ecology of Documentary Arabic
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
A Sudden Language: Pre-Islamic Arabic Writing and the Epigraphical Habit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
The Rise and Dissolution of “Imperial Arabic” (From Reichssprache to Lingua Franca) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Concluding Remarks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
II Imperial Arabic: Between Text and Visual Text
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Images of the Word Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
The Word and the Image: An Arab Late Antiquity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
From Image to Word Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
The Eye of the Beholders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
III Shaping Official Umayyad Arabic
Introduction: Reichsarabisch or Early Islamic Official Arabic? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
If the Mountain Will Come: Arabic Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
If the Mountain Will Not Come: Official Inscriptions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Umayyad Official Documentary Standard as Early Islamic Documentary Standard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
IV A Culture of Ambivalence
Negotiating “Arab Style” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Shifting Boundaries between Scribal Cultures in the Umayyad Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Parallel Scribal Traditions: Numismatics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Parallel Scribal Traditions: Independent Arab-Style Scribal Practices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
V An Empire of Words
Regional Idiolects in the Use of Administrative Loanwords in Documentary Arabic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
The Loanwords in Imperial Arabic (640–800) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
Regional Diversity in the Use of Administrative Loanwords in Early Islamic Documentary Arabic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	310
Terminology and Regional Settings: The Role of Umayyad Syria and the Looming Shadow of Abbasid Iraq Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	314
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
Summary and Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
Appendices
Appendix 1: Formal and Layout Structure of Early Islamic Arabic Official Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
Appendix 2: Formal and Layout Structure of Early Islamic Official Inscriptions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Appendix 3: Comparative Table of Early Islamic Arab-style Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
Indices
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415
Index Locorum I: Papyri Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	427
Index Locorum II: Inscriptions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	441

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of Late Antique/Early Islamic History, Papyrology, Empire Studies, Social History, Middle Eastern Studies.
Pages
- Front matter: 21
- Main content: 443
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 14
- Coloured Illustrations: 7
- Coloured Maps: 3
- Tables: 4
Keywords: Early Islamic Empire; Arabic papyrology; Cultural liminality and multiglossia; Representation of authority

eBook

Published: April 4, 2022
ISBN: 9783110740820

Hardcover

Published: April 18, 2022
ISBN: 9783110740721

Paperback

Planned Publication: June 17, 2024
ISBN: 9783111543864