Ursula Hammed | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (original) (raw)
Talks by Ursula Hammed
Online talk at SICM Mahfil Ali on the early hadith in Arabic papyri (7th-9th century CE)
An overview on Arabic literary papyri that bear texts allegedly authored by or mentioning prophet... more An overview on Arabic literary papyri that bear texts allegedly authored by or mentioning prophets Jesus and David.
It is well-known that Greek is among the languages and cultures with most influence on Arabic cul... more It is well-known that Greek is among the languages and cultures with most influence on Arabic culture and intellectual history. There is papyrological evidence for administrative practice, but also for magical techniques that were taken over by the Arabs after the conquest of Egypt. A first insight into the ways the Greek literary tradition and even Greek school teaching entered the Arabic tradition can be gained from an Arabic papyrus from the Heidelberg collection. The fragmentary papyrus contains short phrases with an edifying or moralising content, aligned alphabetically after an initial isolated letter. In form, they closely resemble the collections of edifying sayings known generally as Menandri Sententiae. It is likely that it was a school text, like many of its Greek parallels. The text can not only provide much-needed information about how Arabic was taught in Early Islamic Egypt, but also about the cultural continuation in the transmission of a literary format. If preliminarily readings of two (scholars’?) names on the papyrus turn out to be valid, we might even be able to trace this Arabic version of sententiae back to an earlier stage of its transmission history.
From a formal point of view, literary papyri differ from documentary papyri insofar as they canno... more From a formal point of view, literary papyri differ from documentary papyri insofar as they cannot be divided and consequently grouped according to genre or type. Variance is simply too wide and individual practice too widespread, also among literary texts that share the same thematical focus. We must apply other criteria in order to establish a feasible typology of forms of layout and structural elements. I will argue that our classification of literary papyri should, at least preliminarily, be undertaken according to one main aspect: The scholarly background, i.e. to which level of scholarly and scribal accomplishment the texts can point. Kitāb- and bāb-divisions, a clear preference of musnad or muṣannaf order for ḥadīth texts, as well as combinations of structural elements and navigation aids like marginal notes, different unit markers, and illumination, will serve as parameters for our classification. Additionally, I will propose the establishment of a “scripture type” that is only applicable to a limited number of literary texts, namely Koran and other texts regarded as scripture. Future research will show if this type is supplied with a sufficient material basis or if the phenomena grouped therein are best described individually.
Arabic papyrus texts, among the earliest written witnesses of Islamic history, do not only show u... more Arabic papyrus texts, among the earliest written witnesses of Islamic history, do not only show us how governance and administration worked during the first Islamic centuries, but they also mirror the intellectual landscape of their time. Literary texts, a heavily understudied field of Arabic papyrology, can teach us which ideas and concepts prevailed among scholars in early Islamic Egypt. Two papyri from the Austrian National Library papyrus collection (P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854) show a scholar’s collection of thematically linked texts. A prominent element of this florilegium is a passage from the Kitab al-Zabur, the Islamic psalms of Prophet David revealed to him according to the Koran. They exist in variant forms in later manuscripts, P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 is the earliest attestation of the text known so far. Apart from the Zabūr text, the papyrus bears accounts of Prophet Muḥammad’s last hours and the death of Fāṭima. What all these texts have in common is their pietistic tone that stands in the tradition of the early Islamic renunciation movements as described by Melchert. This paper will show how the text fits into the overall field of Arabic literary papyri and into Early Islamic scholarship. It will also ask questions about the origins of the Islamic psalms and their early versions in general, as well as embed P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 into the intellectual framework of its time.
This talk will focus on the matn of hadith texts found on papyrus. It will look into topics and i... more This talk will focus on the matn of hadith texts found on papyrus. It will look into topics and issues that shaped the early hadith discourse as mirrored in 7th-10th century CE documents and also touch upon the consepts and ideas that the scholarly elite in Early Islamic Egypt held.
Talk on different groups of potentially performative verbs and how they are used in Arabic papyru... more Talk on different groups of potentially performative verbs and how they are used in Arabic papyrus and paper documents (7th-16th centuries CE). Criteria for performativity examined, especially in regard of taqbīl/yunhī formula and regarding legal documents (the witness clause introduced by shahidtu).
Late antique/early Islamic Egypt has been largely looked at through the lens of documentary texts... more Late antique/early Islamic Egypt has been largely looked at through the lens of documentary texts, leaving us with the impression that the Arabic speaking elite's literary production consisted mainly of letters, legal documents, tax documents etc. This paper wants to show the ideas and concepts that the "upper class" and especially scholars held, and in which ways these ideas correspond to intellectual trends and adab movements known from the East. A wide range of Arabic literary papyri will be used to explain what the scholarly intellectual landscape in early Islamic Egypt might have looked like.
Relations between the confessional groups based on documentary evidence, mainly papyri and Geniza... more Relations between the confessional groups based on documentary evidence, mainly papyri and Genizah material.
Literary production during the first three Islamic centuries. Describes. the current research on ... more Literary production during the first three Islamic centuries. Describes. the current research on Arabic literary papyri and possible future challenges. Some examples.
A talk about layout and content of Arabic magical papyri. Also examined some influence from neigh... more A talk about layout and content of Arabic magical papyri. Also examined some influence from neighboring magical traditions, i.e. Greco-Roman, Coptic and others.
A presentation of the most important genres of Arabic papyrus texts and their characteristics.
This paper discusses content, form and possible setting(s) in life of an Arabic poem on papyrus. ... more This paper discusses content, form and possible setting(s) in life of an Arabic poem on papyrus. Its unknown background, purpose and addressee, as well as its unprofessional structure, allows for several assumptions in respect of the circumstances of its composition.
Starting from a very short definition of what an amulet is, adding a brief overview on the amulet... more Starting from a very short definition of what an amulet is, adding a brief overview on the amulets published so far (block prints not included in detail), I will show how to identify amulets and/or magical texts. I will then try to sketch the basic characteristics of amulets concerning layout, content and language. After some thoughts on what the realization of these three aspects can tell us about the amulets’ “setting in life,” my talk will include a brief glimpse at some background literature on amulets and how it can help us with studying them. Afterwards, I will concentrate on two basic classifications of amulets, i.e. with or without Qur’ānic verses and with or without drawings, sharing my assumptions on further implications of the presence/absence of said features. In the last part of my talk, I will clarify the points mentioned above with the help of examples from the Austrian National Library Papyrus Collection.
Im Folgenden behandle ich Manifestationen von Heiligkeit anhand eines arabischen Textes aus dem ö... more Im Folgenden behandle ich Manifestationen von Heiligkeit anhand eines arabischen Textes aus dem östlichen Nildelta, der auf eine in etwa vier Meter lange Papierrolle geschrieben wurde. Da der Text mehrmals kopiert wurde, kann kein genaues Verfassungsdatum angegeben werden. Es wird zwar das Jahr 647 islamischer Zeitrechnung genannt, was 1249-50 n.Chr. entspricht, das Datum dürfte aber auf Grund der Ehrfurcht, die der Schreiber vor dem Text hatte, einfach mitkopiert worden sein. 1249-50 n.Chr. ist also der terminus post quem für die aktuellste Version des Textes.
Heiligkeit wird im Narrativ des erwähnten Dokuments parallel zu genealogischen, stammesgeschichtlichen und pseudohistoriographischen Berichten zur Legitimierung einer Gruppe verwendet. Den Nachkommen eines gewissen Saʿd b. ʿUbāda wird zuerst über genealogische Aspekte, dann zusätzlich noch über Erscheinungsformen von Heiligkeit ein verdientes, ehrenvolles und hohes Prestige zugeschrieben.
„Heiligkeit,“ oder anders ausgedrückt außergewöhnliche Ereignisse, die auf eine spirituelle Begabung der Beteiligten schließen lassen, finden sich im Narrativ der Schriftrolle in Form von Männern, die in Träume von anderen einsteigen können, die posthum Wunder an ihrem Grab bewirken und Bittstellern im Traum erscheinen und deren Bittgebete von Gott augenblicklich erhört werden. Diese Manifestationen übernatürlicher Ereignisse entsprechen mehr oder weniger klassischen Topoi, wie man sie in mündlich weitergegebenen Erzählungen zu islamischen „Heiligen“ in Ägypten findet. Eine andere Form von „Heiligkeit,“ von spiritueller Höhe, wie sie im Text aufscheint, ist mit der islamischen Mystik, dem Sufismus, verbunden. Da der Text vermutlich im Umfeld eines Sufiordens entstanden ist, sind in den Text auch aus diesem Bereich spezielle Manifestationen von außergewöhnlicher, spiritueller Begabung eingeflossen.
A study of four ḥadīth papyri from the Austrian National Library Papyrus collection
The partition of “land and power” at the periphery – some notes on the agreements between St Cath... more The partition of “land and power” at the periphery – some notes on the agreements between St Catherine’s Monastery and the Bedouin
In my talk, I will treat the written agreements between the monks at St Catherine’s monastery and the tribes inhabiting the Sinai Peninsula.
The documents, which have been taken by D.S. Richards from ʿAṭīya , date from the 15th and 16th century CE, but closer analysis will encompass only the earlier documents.
The following three aspects will be discussed on the basis of the documents and Richards’s commentary:
First, there is the topic of “land and power” itself and specific questions linked to it, like in which relation we must place land possession and responsibility for the safety of those crossing said land or which duties and rights were incumbent on which party of the agreements.
The second area that deserves our interest is the question of administration at the periphery. Neither the monks not the Bedouin were backed by government officials when drawing up their agreements on livelihood, travel and safety on the Sinai Peninsula. Furthermore, the documents had to cross the conceptual gap between the monastery’s hierarchy and legislation and Bedouin law, which was (and is) in many aspects not based on Islamic law, but has its own origins and regulations.
Then another interesting point is how and where the agreements were preserved. They were found in the monastery, but since they are mutual agreements binding two parties to their content one must ask if the Bedouin were granted access to them in order to read the content up or if there were copies or a least one copy for the shaykh al-ʿarab. If not we must assume that the documents’ text was made known to every single member of the Bedouin tribes in a way which at the same time made everybody adhere to its content.
Considering these facts, one must speak of a kind of “unofficial administration,” whose authority was in the agreements and their execution. The agreements administered what the government did not take care of: daily life in an outlying region.
Thirdly, the documents (one on parchment, the others on paper) will be studied from a papyrological viewpoint. Here the main topics to deal with are document type and structure, the formulae employed and linguistic questions, e.g. the extreme tendency towards dialectal expressions.
Papers by Ursula Hammed
Geschichte der arabischen Welt, 2024
Looks at the intellectual landscape in Early Islamic Egypt based on Arabic literary papyri. ISBN ... more Looks at the intellectual landscape in Early Islamic Egypt based on Arabic literary papyri.
ISBN 978-3-406-82244-5
Online talk at SICM Mahfil Ali on the early hadith in Arabic papyri (7th-9th century CE)
An overview on Arabic literary papyri that bear texts allegedly authored by or mentioning prophet... more An overview on Arabic literary papyri that bear texts allegedly authored by or mentioning prophets Jesus and David.
It is well-known that Greek is among the languages and cultures with most influence on Arabic cul... more It is well-known that Greek is among the languages and cultures with most influence on Arabic culture and intellectual history. There is papyrological evidence for administrative practice, but also for magical techniques that were taken over by the Arabs after the conquest of Egypt. A first insight into the ways the Greek literary tradition and even Greek school teaching entered the Arabic tradition can be gained from an Arabic papyrus from the Heidelberg collection. The fragmentary papyrus contains short phrases with an edifying or moralising content, aligned alphabetically after an initial isolated letter. In form, they closely resemble the collections of edifying sayings known generally as Menandri Sententiae. It is likely that it was a school text, like many of its Greek parallels. The text can not only provide much-needed information about how Arabic was taught in Early Islamic Egypt, but also about the cultural continuation in the transmission of a literary format. If preliminarily readings of two (scholars’?) names on the papyrus turn out to be valid, we might even be able to trace this Arabic version of sententiae back to an earlier stage of its transmission history.
From a formal point of view, literary papyri differ from documentary papyri insofar as they canno... more From a formal point of view, literary papyri differ from documentary papyri insofar as they cannot be divided and consequently grouped according to genre or type. Variance is simply too wide and individual practice too widespread, also among literary texts that share the same thematical focus. We must apply other criteria in order to establish a feasible typology of forms of layout and structural elements. I will argue that our classification of literary papyri should, at least preliminarily, be undertaken according to one main aspect: The scholarly background, i.e. to which level of scholarly and scribal accomplishment the texts can point. Kitāb- and bāb-divisions, a clear preference of musnad or muṣannaf order for ḥadīth texts, as well as combinations of structural elements and navigation aids like marginal notes, different unit markers, and illumination, will serve as parameters for our classification. Additionally, I will propose the establishment of a “scripture type” that is only applicable to a limited number of literary texts, namely Koran and other texts regarded as scripture. Future research will show if this type is supplied with a sufficient material basis or if the phenomena grouped therein are best described individually.
Arabic papyrus texts, among the earliest written witnesses of Islamic history, do not only show u... more Arabic papyrus texts, among the earliest written witnesses of Islamic history, do not only show us how governance and administration worked during the first Islamic centuries, but they also mirror the intellectual landscape of their time. Literary texts, a heavily understudied field of Arabic papyrology, can teach us which ideas and concepts prevailed among scholars in early Islamic Egypt. Two papyri from the Austrian National Library papyrus collection (P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854) show a scholar’s collection of thematically linked texts. A prominent element of this florilegium is a passage from the Kitab al-Zabur, the Islamic psalms of Prophet David revealed to him according to the Koran. They exist in variant forms in later manuscripts, P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 is the earliest attestation of the text known so far. Apart from the Zabūr text, the papyrus bears accounts of Prophet Muḥammad’s last hours and the death of Fāṭima. What all these texts have in common is their pietistic tone that stands in the tradition of the early Islamic renunciation movements as described by Melchert. This paper will show how the text fits into the overall field of Arabic literary papyri and into Early Islamic scholarship. It will also ask questions about the origins of the Islamic psalms and their early versions in general, as well as embed P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 into the intellectual framework of its time.
This talk will focus on the matn of hadith texts found on papyrus. It will look into topics and i... more This talk will focus on the matn of hadith texts found on papyrus. It will look into topics and issues that shaped the early hadith discourse as mirrored in 7th-10th century CE documents and also touch upon the consepts and ideas that the scholarly elite in Early Islamic Egypt held.
Talk on different groups of potentially performative verbs and how they are used in Arabic papyru... more Talk on different groups of potentially performative verbs and how they are used in Arabic papyrus and paper documents (7th-16th centuries CE). Criteria for performativity examined, especially in regard of taqbīl/yunhī formula and regarding legal documents (the witness clause introduced by shahidtu).
Late antique/early Islamic Egypt has been largely looked at through the lens of documentary texts... more Late antique/early Islamic Egypt has been largely looked at through the lens of documentary texts, leaving us with the impression that the Arabic speaking elite's literary production consisted mainly of letters, legal documents, tax documents etc. This paper wants to show the ideas and concepts that the "upper class" and especially scholars held, and in which ways these ideas correspond to intellectual trends and adab movements known from the East. A wide range of Arabic literary papyri will be used to explain what the scholarly intellectual landscape in early Islamic Egypt might have looked like.
Relations between the confessional groups based on documentary evidence, mainly papyri and Geniza... more Relations between the confessional groups based on documentary evidence, mainly papyri and Genizah material.
Literary production during the first three Islamic centuries. Describes. the current research on ... more Literary production during the first three Islamic centuries. Describes. the current research on Arabic literary papyri and possible future challenges. Some examples.
A talk about layout and content of Arabic magical papyri. Also examined some influence from neigh... more A talk about layout and content of Arabic magical papyri. Also examined some influence from neighboring magical traditions, i.e. Greco-Roman, Coptic and others.
A presentation of the most important genres of Arabic papyrus texts and their characteristics.
This paper discusses content, form and possible setting(s) in life of an Arabic poem on papyrus. ... more This paper discusses content, form and possible setting(s) in life of an Arabic poem on papyrus. Its unknown background, purpose and addressee, as well as its unprofessional structure, allows for several assumptions in respect of the circumstances of its composition.
Starting from a very short definition of what an amulet is, adding a brief overview on the amulet... more Starting from a very short definition of what an amulet is, adding a brief overview on the amulets published so far (block prints not included in detail), I will show how to identify amulets and/or magical texts. I will then try to sketch the basic characteristics of amulets concerning layout, content and language. After some thoughts on what the realization of these three aspects can tell us about the amulets’ “setting in life,” my talk will include a brief glimpse at some background literature on amulets and how it can help us with studying them. Afterwards, I will concentrate on two basic classifications of amulets, i.e. with or without Qur’ānic verses and with or without drawings, sharing my assumptions on further implications of the presence/absence of said features. In the last part of my talk, I will clarify the points mentioned above with the help of examples from the Austrian National Library Papyrus Collection.
Im Folgenden behandle ich Manifestationen von Heiligkeit anhand eines arabischen Textes aus dem ö... more Im Folgenden behandle ich Manifestationen von Heiligkeit anhand eines arabischen Textes aus dem östlichen Nildelta, der auf eine in etwa vier Meter lange Papierrolle geschrieben wurde. Da der Text mehrmals kopiert wurde, kann kein genaues Verfassungsdatum angegeben werden. Es wird zwar das Jahr 647 islamischer Zeitrechnung genannt, was 1249-50 n.Chr. entspricht, das Datum dürfte aber auf Grund der Ehrfurcht, die der Schreiber vor dem Text hatte, einfach mitkopiert worden sein. 1249-50 n.Chr. ist also der terminus post quem für die aktuellste Version des Textes.
Heiligkeit wird im Narrativ des erwähnten Dokuments parallel zu genealogischen, stammesgeschichtlichen und pseudohistoriographischen Berichten zur Legitimierung einer Gruppe verwendet. Den Nachkommen eines gewissen Saʿd b. ʿUbāda wird zuerst über genealogische Aspekte, dann zusätzlich noch über Erscheinungsformen von Heiligkeit ein verdientes, ehrenvolles und hohes Prestige zugeschrieben.
„Heiligkeit,“ oder anders ausgedrückt außergewöhnliche Ereignisse, die auf eine spirituelle Begabung der Beteiligten schließen lassen, finden sich im Narrativ der Schriftrolle in Form von Männern, die in Träume von anderen einsteigen können, die posthum Wunder an ihrem Grab bewirken und Bittstellern im Traum erscheinen und deren Bittgebete von Gott augenblicklich erhört werden. Diese Manifestationen übernatürlicher Ereignisse entsprechen mehr oder weniger klassischen Topoi, wie man sie in mündlich weitergegebenen Erzählungen zu islamischen „Heiligen“ in Ägypten findet. Eine andere Form von „Heiligkeit,“ von spiritueller Höhe, wie sie im Text aufscheint, ist mit der islamischen Mystik, dem Sufismus, verbunden. Da der Text vermutlich im Umfeld eines Sufiordens entstanden ist, sind in den Text auch aus diesem Bereich spezielle Manifestationen von außergewöhnlicher, spiritueller Begabung eingeflossen.
A study of four ḥadīth papyri from the Austrian National Library Papyrus collection
The partition of “land and power” at the periphery – some notes on the agreements between St Cath... more The partition of “land and power” at the periphery – some notes on the agreements between St Catherine’s Monastery and the Bedouin
In my talk, I will treat the written agreements between the monks at St Catherine’s monastery and the tribes inhabiting the Sinai Peninsula.
The documents, which have been taken by D.S. Richards from ʿAṭīya , date from the 15th and 16th century CE, but closer analysis will encompass only the earlier documents.
The following three aspects will be discussed on the basis of the documents and Richards’s commentary:
First, there is the topic of “land and power” itself and specific questions linked to it, like in which relation we must place land possession and responsibility for the safety of those crossing said land or which duties and rights were incumbent on which party of the agreements.
The second area that deserves our interest is the question of administration at the periphery. Neither the monks not the Bedouin were backed by government officials when drawing up their agreements on livelihood, travel and safety on the Sinai Peninsula. Furthermore, the documents had to cross the conceptual gap between the monastery’s hierarchy and legislation and Bedouin law, which was (and is) in many aspects not based on Islamic law, but has its own origins and regulations.
Then another interesting point is how and where the agreements were preserved. They were found in the monastery, but since they are mutual agreements binding two parties to their content one must ask if the Bedouin were granted access to them in order to read the content up or if there were copies or a least one copy for the shaykh al-ʿarab. If not we must assume that the documents’ text was made known to every single member of the Bedouin tribes in a way which at the same time made everybody adhere to its content.
Considering these facts, one must speak of a kind of “unofficial administration,” whose authority was in the agreements and their execution. The agreements administered what the government did not take care of: daily life in an outlying region.
Thirdly, the documents (one on parchment, the others on paper) will be studied from a papyrological viewpoint. Here the main topics to deal with are document type and structure, the formulae employed and linguistic questions, e.g. the extreme tendency towards dialectal expressions.
Geschichte der arabischen Welt, 2024
Looks at the intellectual landscape in Early Islamic Egypt based on Arabic literary papyri. ISBN ... more Looks at the intellectual landscape in Early Islamic Egypt based on Arabic literary papyri.
ISBN 978-3-406-82244-5
BRILL eBooks, Mar 31, 2023
This paper will, starting from the hadith in the title, explore early Islamic views on what can b... more This paper will, starting from the hadith in the title, explore early Islamic views on what can be read as aspects of Christian monasticism, especially prominently represented in an Arabic papyrus text datable to the 2nd or 3rd Islamic century (P.Utah inv. 118). It will discuss if what looks like Christian monastic practice is rather an exaggerated Islamic pious lifestyle, against which Prophet Muḥammad called for moderation, and what conclusions we can draw on the development of a distinct Islamic identity and lifestyle.
Part of this paper is a response to C. Sahnerʾs ‘The Monasticism of my Community is Jihad: A Debate on Asceticism, Sex, and Warfare in Early Islam’ (Arabica 64 (2017), 149-83), as it wants to show how the omission or inclusion of similar accounts from Islamic tradition can give a very different understanding of historic circumstances, namely ideological currents prevalent during the early Islamic centuries.
Analysis of a case of an amīr bringing several aggressors against a woman to justice. Edition of ... more Analysis of a case of an amīr bringing several aggressors against a woman to justice. Edition of P.Utah inv. 341 and analysis of the historical and social context.
Referencing works by Livingston, el-Leithy, Tillier
This thesis deals with several aspects of Islamic folk religion, at first in general, the second ... more This thesis deals with several aspects of Islamic folk religion, at first in general, the second part is an account of my research about saint veneration in Egypt 2008.
WZKM, 2021
Edition, translation and analysis of a third/ninth-century papyrus letter from Egypt. The letter ... more Edition, translation and analysis of a third/ninth-century papyrus letter from Egypt. The letter contains references to previous correspondence by the term ruqʿa, and emotional threats uttered by the sender. P.Vind.inv. A.P. 3263 recto is an Arabic papyrus letter written privately between two officials. It can be palaeographically dated to the 3rd/9th century as it bears no date, and nothing is known about its origin. Though short and informal, it sheds light on internal communication in the administration, pointing towards hierarchies and competences as well as certain proceedings this particular department could undertake, all embedded in the highly emotional context of irritation and self-defense in the light of previous accusations
From Qom to Barcelona, 2020
This article takes up the long-neglected study of Ḥadīth on papyus anew. It discusses previous pa... more This article takes up the long-neglected study of Ḥadīth on papyus anew. It discusses previous papyrological publications with respect to the treatment of Arabic literary papyri, which have hitherto been highly underrepresented. Aided by five papyri from the Austrian National Library Papyrus Collection, some questions on Ḥadīth scholarship and textual transmission during the first Islamic centuries are discussed, including further possible directions for future research.
Kaplony / Marx (eds.), Qurʾān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries (Documenta Coranica 2), Leiden 2019, 2019
Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt. Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft, 2018
Anhand von arabischen Papyri und anderen dokumentarischen Texten wird gezeigt, in welche Richtung... more Anhand von arabischen Papyri und anderen dokumentarischen Texten wird gezeigt, in welche Richtung Studien der islamischen Magie im Rahmen dieses Materials gehen können.
Derda / Lajtar / Urbanik (eds.), Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology (Warsaw, 29 July – 3 August 2013). , pp. 1077–1084 (The Journal of Juristic Papyrology Supplements, 28). Warsaw 2016, 2016
Edition of P.Cair.EgLib.inv. 885v, seemingly the second half of a sale contract without the initi... more Edition of P.Cair.EgLib.inv. 885v, seemingly the second half of a sale contract without the initial formulae. A vineyard, previously split up for a heritage, is being sold by its owner to her sister's husband.
Beyond Authenticity, Alternative Approaches to Hadith Narrations and Collections , 2023
A preliminary insight into the daily work of early muḥaddithīn.
A short glimpse into the complex history and narrative of a Medieval paper scroll from Egypt. Pub... more A short glimpse into the complex history and narrative of a Medieval paper scroll from Egypt. Published in Bouderbala / Denoix / Malczycki, New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology, Leiden - Boston 2017. Link to publication: http://www.brill.com/products/book/new-frontiers-arabic-papyrology
Edition of a commercial letter between two flax traders in 9th/3rd century Egypt. Remarkable voca... more Edition of a commercial letter between two flax traders in 9th/3rd century Egypt. Remarkable vocabulary and language level.
Garcia Probert, Marcela A.; Sijpesteijn, Petra: Amulets and Talismans of the Middle East and North Africa in Context: Transmission, Efficacy and Collections (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society 13), 2022
This paper answers five questions concerning Arabic magical texts in documentary sources (primari... more This paper answers five questions concerning Arabic magical texts in documentary sources (primarily papyri, but also other materials). The given answers can serve as a guide for researchers in magical texts. Special emphasis is put on influences from and to neighboring magical traditions (Greco-Roman, Coptic, Jewish/Geniza).
by Lajos Berkes, Andreas Kaplony, Sebastian Metz, Ursula Hammed, Daniel Potthast, Lucian Reinfandt, Khaled Younes, Oded Zinger, Eleonora Sonego, Eugenio Garosi, and Rocio Daga
Heilige und geheiligte Dinge. Formen und Funktionen, 2017
This paper examines the definition of 'holiness' in an Islamic, probably Sufi context by the exmp... more This paper examines the definition of 'holiness' in an Islamic, probably Sufi context by the exmple of a Medieval scroll from Egypt. After a general introduction on 'holiness' in Islam, specific examples from the Medieval text are being used to show the different ways of expressing 'holiness' in a narrative connected to genealogy, history and Sufism.
Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power, 2015
A significant number of Arabic papyri hitherto edited express a certain 'Language of Power' becau... more A significant number of Arabic papyri hitherto edited express a certain 'Language of Power' because those who wrote them, or ordered their composition, were in many cases officials who wanted the addressee to perform something for them. Thus it could be expected that these letters would exhibit more or less frequent instances of performative speech. This preliminary study examines to which degree and in which way performative expressions appear in published Arabic Administrative papyri.
EGIPTOS is in the preparatory stage for a large-scale papyrological project which combines Arabic... more EGIPTOS is in the preparatory stage for a large-scale papyrological project which combines Arabic documents (on parchment, papyrus, and paper) with documents in Greek, Coptic, Hebrew and other languages, whose production overlaps with the time frame for early and classical Islamic Egypt.
Through a comparison of selected key features, groups and clusters of documents can be combined into corpora and sub-corpora. The webportal as working tool of the project aims not only at an intuitive and simple way to select documents based on specific characteristics, but also at displaying their relational proximity to other documents. Published and unpublished material can be grouped according to various criteria and tags, which will provide an easily accessible research basis for experienced Arabic papyrologists and PhD and graduate students alike, as well as for scholars of related studies interested in aspects of medieval Egypt.
by Andreas Kaplony, Emma Mages, Sebastian Metz, Ursula Hammed, Eleonora Sonego, Daniel Potthast, Eva Mira Youssef-Grob, Johannes Thomann, Michail Hradek, Eugenio Garosi, Mari Sipl, and Lucian Reinfandt
The Arabic Papyrology Database is a tool enabling you to access the editions of Arabic documents ... more The Arabic Papyrology Database is a tool enabling you to access the editions of Arabic documents written on different material such as papyrus, parchment or paper. Those productive editions are an often unraised treasure for almost every aspect of Islamic history up to the 16th c. A.D.
This paper deals with the roles and responsibilities that women took up in Egypt in Late Antiquit... more This paper deals with the roles and responsibilities that women took up in Egypt in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The main source material for my conclusions are Arabic documentary texts from Late Antique and (Early) Medieval Egypt.
Tv series set in traditional Upper Egyptian surroundings have seen a huge rise in popularity in t... more Tv series set in traditional Upper Egyptian surroundings have seen a huge rise in popularity in the years 2006-2014. They represent stereotypical characters, show violence, arbitrariness and misogyny, but are highly popular with the audience. This paper aims at a preliminary analysis of social concepts and roles appearing in two of the most popular Ṣaʿīdī-style series.
This thesis is basically a critical edition of an Arabic manuscript on paper dating to medieval t... more This thesis is basically a critical edition of an Arabic manuscript on paper dating to medieval
times. The text calls itself nasab and tārīḫ, meaning a work of genealogy and historiography.
Locals refer to it as to a hagiography describing the life of the local saint. It was kept in a private household in the Eastern Nile Delta and is now lost. The
only existing copy is a photocopy in possession of the author of this thesis.
Even a quick examination of the text shows that it is not really (or not only) a “simple”
hagiography, but a highly complex text. It focuses on genealogy by tracing a family tree that
starts with the ṣaḥābī Saʿd b. ʿUbāda and gets affiliated with the tribe of Ǧuḏām. Tribal
history is another point the text features to a great extent. It describes tribesʾ journeys and
feuds as well as allotment of land to them by rulers in medieval Egypt. Tribal identity is
nevertheless not the means of legitimation the scribe wanted to convey to the reader, but it
is social affiliation with the group of the anṣār, whom the text glorifies.
The other aspect the document emphasizes is the aspect of holiness. Some descendants of
Saʿd b. ʿUbāda have exceptional spiritual powers, although the above mentioned local saint
is not described in this way as much as his son Rašdān.
There is also a Sufi order, called the Ṭarīqa Ghunaymiyya, that is somehow connected to the
text. The mentioned local walī is the father of the orderʾs founder Ghunaym and has even
received his nisba from him. It is highly possible that the text originates from the realm of the
Sufi ṭarīqa, since its last copyist, Muḥammad al-Qayṭūnī (the original author is unknown), was
an accomplished Sufi himself. The narrative shows traits and terms akin to Sufi terminology,
which strengthens this assumption. In the years 2012 and 2014, fieldwork was carried out in
Egypt and Morocco in order to gather more information on the ṭarīqa and its possible ties with
the text. While not being able to accomplish this task due to the situation of the order, who
has no representative nowadays and whose last shuyūkh have passed away, the author of
this thesis could acquire the handbook of the order as well as certificates issued by it, which
shed light on the possible religious and political sphere the order originated from.
Review of P.Heid.Arab. III, an edition volume of Heidelberg papers by W. Diem
During the preparatory work for the project EGIPTOS (currently a web portal for information on Ar... more During the preparatory work for the project EGIPTOS (currently a web portal for information on Arabic documents), we noticed a cluster of Arabic papyri from the 9th century CE, all mentioning inhabitants of Tebtynis, Ṭuṭūn in Arabic. More specifically, the documents all seem to mention members of the same family. Starting from the unpublished fragment P.Utah inv. 426, information on them started to unravel. Published and unpublished material from at least three different institutions comes together in the dossier that documents the legal proceedings the family was involved in. They seem to have been assisted by a Muslim family of professional witnesses, whose activities are likely traceable until the beginning of the 11th century CE. Our paper will present the dossier, address its difficulties, and sketch possible conclusions on legal practice and consequent societal circumstances in 9th and 10th century CE Tebtynis.
On the one hand, the ḥadīth is one of the most extensively studied aspects of Islamic Intellectua... more On the one hand, the ḥadīth is one of the most extensively studied aspects of Islamic Intellectual history. Studies by Goldziher, Schacht, Juynboll, Motzki, Schoeler, Sezgin and many others speak elaborately about the production and transmission of the ḥadīth, how it was taught, spread and written down.
Considering how much work has been done on the early ḥadīth, it may seem surprising that there is still a big gap that was never bridged: There is no systematic, comprehensive study of the early ḥadīth based on original documentary evidence.
Collections around the world host tens of thousands of Arabic papyri from the first three Islamic centuries, but little attention has been given to the fact that these texts do not only mirror how the early Islamic Empire was governed. They also shed light on the literary production during that time, a time that was not only before (or slightly into) the canonization of Islamic law and ḥadīth, but also during the material shift from sheet/scroll to codex.
A new project’s aim is to present the first comprehensive study of the early ḥadīth based mainly on original papyrus texts from that time, unrivaled witnesses of early Islamic literary production. The project will start from February 2018 at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge and will be funded by an Erwin Schrödinger research fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
This paper will present the first results on how early muḥaddithīn learned, taught and passed their knowledge on, how they worked with their written records, and how and whom they cited as authorities.
P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 is a newly discovered literary papyrus. The four-page text, palaeographical... more P.Vind.inv. A.P. 1854 is a newly discovered literary papyrus. The four-page text, palaeographically datable to the 3rd century AH, does not only add to our limited knowledge or language and layout of Arabic literary papyri. It shows, among Islamic sources, citations from the Books of Psalms. While it is unmistakably clear that the writer was Muslim, he must have had one of the early translations of the Book of Psalms into Arabic at his disposal. This paper will look into the use to which the text might have been put by its writer, as well as put it into its historical context, meaning a time when translations into Arabic made religious knowledge from sources other than traditional Islamic scholarship accessible to an Arabic-reading public.
Literature
Al-Abawān al-Faġālī, Būlus & ʿAwkar, Anṭūn (eds.): al-ʿAhd al-qadīm al-ʿibrī: Tarǧama bayna s-suṭūr, ʿibrī - ʿarabī. Al-Ǧāmiʿa al-Anṭūnīya, Ǧūniya 2007.
Griffith, Sidney H.: The Bible in Arabic: The scriptures of the ‘People of the Book’ in the language of Islam. Princeton – Oxford 2013.
Khoury, R.G..: « Quelques réflexions sur les citations de la Bible dans les premières générations islamiques du premier et du deuxième siècles de l’Hégire . » Bulletin d’études Orientales 29 (Mélanges offertes a Henri Laoust) (1977) : 269-78.
Lindgren, M. & Vollandt, R. : « An Early Copy of the Pentateuch and the Book of Daniel in Arabic (MS Sinai – Arabic 2): Preliminary observations on codicology, text types, and translation technique.” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 1 (2013): 43-68.
McAuliffe, J.D. : “The Quranic context of Muslim biblical scholarship.” Islam and Christian-Muslim relations 7/2 (2007): 141-58.
Polliack, M. : “The Karaite inversion of ‘written’ and ‘oral’ Torah in relation to the Islamic arch-models of Quran and Hadith.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 22 (2015): 243-302.
- ,“The Medieval Karaite tradition of translation the Hebrew Bible into Arabic : Its sources, characteristics, and historical background.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 6/2 (1996): 189-96.
Schmidtke, S.: “The Muslim reception of Biblical materials: Ibn Qutayba and his Aʿlām al-nubuwwa.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22/3 (2011): 249-74.
Sifr al-Mazāmīr. British Bible Society, London 1871.
Vollandt, R.: Arabic versions of the Pentateuch: A comparative study of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources. Leiden – Boston 2015 (Biblia Arabica 2).
Written source material from all periods of history is generally divided into “documentary” and “... more Written source material from all periods of history is generally divided into “documentary” and “literary” or “narrative” texts. While this division is doubtlessly useful for a quick categorization and even necessary from a diplomatic and structural point of view, it can lead to negligence towards other aspects that “documents” or “literary texts” bear, meaning the literary portion of documents on the one hand and the way in which literary narratives can document the circumstances of their time on the other hand.
We commonly expect documents to state simple, straightforward, “neutral” content, but we should not ignore the fact that even historical records were written by people with an agenda, by people who transported their own view on past, but also on present events into the texts they were producing. At the same time, “literature” or mainly narrative texts also have their own ideological framework in which they act. Deviations from an otherwise established text must therefore be regarded as a result of deliberate manipulations; of manipulations whose aim was to lead the prospective audience towards certain ideas. The use of terminology in texts; be they primarily documentary or literary, also points to possibilities of shaping the perception of e.g. a profession or a group of individuals over time.
The shared aim of this panel’s papers is showing the interactions and influences that often occur between texts that receive the categorization “documentary” or “literary,” i.e. narrative. Its disadvantage is that it creates a dichotomy that is mostly based on shape and outer appearance of the texts, but does not take their multiple functions into account. We will present texts and developments that show the interplay between “documentary” and “narrative” aspects of text genres, and the strategies by which writers integrated them into each other.
Wives, slaves, business women? – Women’s lives in late antique and early medieval Egypt While we... more Wives, slaves, business women? – Women’s lives in late antique and early medieval Egypt
While we still don’t know much about women’s lives in late antique and early medieval Egypt, documentary sources can grant us valuable insights on daily life during that time period. Original texts on papyrus, paper and other materials can help us understand the roles and functions women took up in a multireligious and multilingual society, away from stereotypes of women’s confinement to the household on the one hand and to the palace on the other hand. Contrary to literary sources often prone to idealizing and normative elements or projections, documentary texts are direct witnesses of their time. We will look at the overall representation of women’s lives that we can see in documents, as well as showing some special cases.
Der Islam, 2020
The “Annotated Bibliography of Arabic Papyrology” aims to give an overview of all publications fr... more The “Annotated Bibliography of Arabic Papyrology” aims to give an overview of all publications from Arabic papyrology and diplomatics that come to our notice. Particular emphasis is put on scientific editions of original documents, as they provide resources for further linguistic and historical research and make Arabic documents accessible.
Review: Diem, Werner: Fürsprachebriefe in der arabisch-islamischen Welt des 8.-14. Jahrhunderts (... more Review: Diem, Werner: Fürsprachebriefe in der arabisch-islamischen Welt des 8.-14. Jahrhunderts (Ergon 2015)
Review of Stauth, Gregor: Herausforderung Ägypten (transcript 2010)
by Andreas Kaplony, Lajos Berkes, Ursula Hammed, Rocio Daga, angelique kleiner, Sebastian Metz, Mari Sipl, Eleonora Sonego, Khaled Younes, Oded Zinger, and Ilkka Lindstedt
Many Muslims’ religious practice includes popular beliefs and customs at the margins of or even c... more Many Muslims’ religious practice includes popular beliefs and customs at the margins of or even condemned by institutions of Islamic orthodoxy.
Focusing mainly on the Arab world, we will look at some aspects of magic, divination, customs related to the evil eye, visiting shrines, belief in jinn, and popular medicine that, though in part older than Islam and even older than monotheism, have formed an integral part of daily Islam in the MENA region throughout the centuries.
Both historical and modern documents and objects will help us explore Islamic popular religion and its often fluid boundaries to magic and the occult on the one hand, and to an often self-proclaimed orthodoxy on the other hand.
Der Workshop richtet sich an Studierende und Interessent*innen der Orientalistik, Islamwissenscha... more Der Workshop richtet sich an Studierende und Interessent*innen der Orientalistik, Islamwissenschaft, Nahoststudien und verwandter Fächer, die erste Erfahrungen im Umgang mit dokumentarischen Quellenzeugnissen des arabischen Sprach-und Kulturraums (v.a. Ägypten, Syrien-Palästina, Andalusien) vom 7. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert sammeln wollen.
A modern, comprehensive study of the early hadith from Egypt. Published and unpublished papyrus m... more A modern, comprehensive study of the early hadith from Egypt. Published and unpublished papyrus material from five different collections brings together texts and ideas taught and transmitted throughout the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th century.