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From Tuscany to Alexandria: Arabic and Hebrew mercantile letters in the Prize Paper Collections.

从托斯卡纳到亚历山大：获奖论文集中的阿拉伯和希伯来商业信件。

基本信息

批准号：
317765149
负责人：
Dr. Mohamed Ali Hussein Ahmed
金额：
--
依托单位：
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Fellowships
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2015-12-31 至 2019-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/317765149?language=en
关键词：
Tuscany Alexandria Arabic Hebrew mercantile

项目摘要

The Prize Paper Collections in The National Archives in London contain a considerable quantity of business letters in Arabic and Hebrew script, which were seized in 1759 by British privateers as part of the loot on a Tuscan ship bound for Alexandria. Virtually untouched since that time - most of the letters were still unopened when we first viewed them - they remain in the pristine condition in which they were archived in the 18th century. They thus present a most exciting and probably unique opportunity to investigate the interaction between Jewish, Muslim and Christian merchants across borders in the 18th-century Mediterranean. The letters, numbering in the dozens, are particularly valuable as very little comparative material in Arabic script from that period is known and virtually nothing has been edited and published on the topic. Prize Paper materials published so far have mainly focused on those letters written in Dutch, but efforts are currently underway to establish a consortium of scholars from different disciplines working on the Collection. An edition and historical and linguistic analysis of the Arabic and Hebrew Prize Papers, composed by Christian, Jewish and Muslim traders dealing in a variety of commodities, will substantially contribute to this wider project and thus to research in a variety of fields. The immediate focus of our proposed work will be on linguistic issues, but through the envisaged editions this will also enhance understanding of the transnational economic and cultural history of the 18th century, in particular with regard to the research on inter-religious mercantile relations between Europe and the Middle East. The aim of this research project is to transcribe and translate all Arabic and Hebrew documents of the Prize Papers Collections. All sources will be subjected to linguistic analyses concerning their orthography/phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon. One of the most important objectives of the present proposal is to investigate the differences and commonalities in the language used by merchants of different faith communities, both among themselves and in inter-communal correspondence. First results have indicated that inter-communal correspondence, for example between Jews and Muslims, Christians and Muslims, and Jews and Christians, is written in a higher linguistic register than for example those letters sent exclusively within a Christian or Jewish business network. Another important subject of the investigation will be the codeswitching between languages and dialectal forms versus standard Arabic. What prompts merchants to switch into the familiar colloquial register? When do they use formal, classical Arabic forms? Further foci of the proposed project will be the dichotomy between orality and written language, palaeographical and codicological concerns (did the merchants use scribes or did they write the letters with their own hand), and Arabic dialectology.

伦敦国家档案馆的获奖论文集包含大量阿拉伯语和希伯来语文字的商业信件，这些信件于 1759 年被英国私掠者扣押，作为一艘开往亚历山大的托斯卡纳船上战利品的一部分。从那时起，这些信件几乎没有被碰过——当我们第一次看到它们时，大多数信件都还没有被打开过——它们仍然保持着 18 世纪存档时的原始状态。因此，它们提供了一个最令人兴奋、也可能是独一无二的机会来调查 18 世纪地中海地区犹太、穆斯林和基督教商人之间的跨境互动。这些信件数量达数十封，特别有价值，因为我们所知的那个时期阿拉伯文字的比较材料很少，而且几乎没有任何关于该主题的编辑和出版。迄今为止发表的获奖论文材料主要集中在那些用荷兰语写的信件上，但目前正在努力建立一个由不同学科的学者组成的联盟来研究该集合。由从事各种商品交易的基督教、犹太教和穆斯林商人撰写的阿拉伯语和希伯来语获奖论文的版本及其历史和语言分析，将为这一更广泛的项目做出重大贡献，从而为各个领域的研究做出贡献。我们提议的工作的直接重点将是语言问题，但通过设想的版本，这也将增进对 18 世纪跨国经济和文化历史的理解，特别是关于欧洲和中东之间宗教间商业关系的研究。该研究项目的目的是转录和翻译获奖论文集的所有阿拉伯语和希伯来语文件。所有来源都将接受有关其正字法/音系、形态、句法和词汇的语言分析。本提案最重要的目标之一是调查不同信仰社区的商人之间以及社区间通信中使用的语言的差异和共性。初步结果表明，社区间的通信，例如犹太人和穆斯林之间、基督徒和穆斯林之间、犹太人和基督徒之间的通信，是用比专门在基督教或犹太商业网络内发送的信件更高的语言记录书写的。调查的另一个重要主题是语言和方言形式与标准阿拉伯语之间的语码转换。是什么促使商家改用熟悉的口语？他们什么时候使用正式的、古典的阿拉伯语形式？拟议项目的进一步焦点将是口头和书面语言之间的二分法、古文字学和法典学问题（商人使用抄写员还是他们自己亲手写信）以及阿拉伯方言学。