Monetization of taxation in Early Medieval Egypt: a documentary investigation

中世纪早期埃及的税收货币化：文献调查

• 批准号: 2710404
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2710404
• 关键词: Monetization; taxation; Early; Medieval; Egypt

My project aims to investigate the monetization of taxation in Egypt that became apparent around the beginning of the 9th century. By leveraging a large multilingual documentary corpus, this research will provide a new perspective on a crucial period of Egyptian history. I will look to determine when, how and why authorities of one of the longest lasting medieval empires, the Abbasids, shifted away from assessing taxes in kind as well as the immediate economic and social consequences of that decision. As an heir of the Roman fiscal system, Egypt's taxes were assessed partially in kind until the early Islamic period, however, evidence of this practice disappears from the documentary record around the beginning of the 9th century. This change did not come alone, as already from the beginning of the 8th century, under Umayyad rule, the state's grip on taxation has been gradually tightening. To that end, the legal status of Egypt was reviewed, consequently allowing for extraction of more revenue. In addition, a new class of Muslim officials, who were outsiders to the region, was introduced to manage the emerging new system, thus, diminishing the importance of the local Christian elites and sparking considerable upheaval. These developments notwithstanding, when the Abbasids came to power in 750, they chose to move away from taxation in kind, even though it would inevitably spark further problems and a liquidity crisis in the province. This move would change the face of Egyptian economy forever. Using primarily documents from the region written contemporaneously to the events, I will seek to reconstruct as closely as possible how this change has happened as well as analyze its possible reasons and outcomes.

我的项目旨在调查埃及税收的货币化，这在世纪初变得明显。通过利用大型多语言文献语料库，这项研究将为埃及历史的关键时期提供一个新的视角。我将探讨，作为中世纪历史最悠久的帝国之一，阿巴斯王朝的统治者何时、如何以及为何不再以实物征税，以及这一决定的直接经济和社会后果。作为罗马财政制度的继承者，埃及的税收部分以实物评估，直到早期伊斯兰时期，然而，这种做法的证据从大约9世纪世纪初的文献记录中消失。这种变化并不是单独发生的，因为从世纪开始，在倭马亚统治下，国家对税收的控制已经逐渐收紧。为此，对埃及的法律的地位进行了审查，从而允许提取更多的收入。此外，一个新的穆斯林官员阶层，他们是该地区的外来者，被引入管理新兴的新制度，从而削弱了当地基督教精英的重要性，并引发了相当大的动荡。尽管如此，当阿拔斯王朝在750年掌权时，他们选择放弃实物征税，尽管这将不可避免地引发该省的进一步问题和流动性危机。此举将永远改变埃及经济的面貌。我将主要利用该地区与这些事件同时发生的文件，尽可能地重建这种变化是如何发生的，并分析其可能的原因和结果。