Rural society in medieval Islam: Translation and study of the 'History of the Fayyum'

该项目的目的是通过翻译和研究“Fayyum的历史”，对伊斯兰世界前现代农村社会的认识和理解做出重大贡献，“Fayyum的历史”是13世纪埃及一个省的独特而无与伦比的税务登记册。《法尤姆及其村庄的历史》（Ta’rikh al-Fayyum wa-biladihi）于1243年由埃及阿尤布德政府的一位官员撰写，是中世纪伊斯兰世界任何地区现存的最详细的地籍调查。这是埃及中部法尤姆省农业状况的第一手资料，提供了每个村庄的丰富细节，远远超过任何其他可比资料。由于中世纪穆斯林国家的档案已经丢失，这是我们最接近原始税务登记册的地方，中世纪埃及农村的“末日审判书”。通过以一种富有想象力的方式使用这项工作，可以描绘出乡村社区、它们的内部组织以及它们与国家的关系——这是对农民生活方式的一种不可能的洞察，农民构成了中世纪伊斯兰世界人口的大多数。对“Fayyum的历史”的研究将寻求解决中世纪伊斯兰社会和经济史的三组基本问题：-描绘中世纪村庄社区的法律和经济地位，他们与土地的关系，以及他们对-à-vis伊克塔持有者的权利和义务。在伊克塔制度下，农民的权利和义务（伊克塔制度相当于欧洲的封建制度），尽管在中世纪伊斯兰教的历史上有着明显的重要性，但人们仍然不太了解。-解释前现代村庄社区自我定义的方式，特别是法尤姆村庄社区普遍存在的部落身份，这是前现代中东地区的典型特征。-通过研究法尤姆税务登记册上穆斯林和基督徒之间的地理和经济界限，描绘中世纪皈依伊斯兰教的过程。来自13世纪的证据将与来自前伊斯兰教和早期伊斯兰教法尤姆的丰富的纸莎草学证据进行比较，当时该省仍以基督教为主。项目团队将包括首席研究员和一名研究助理，聘期为24个月，为全职工作。该项目的第一年将专门在与现存手稿协商的情况下对工作进行注释翻译，目的是克服术语、地名和数字和地理数据的表示方面的问题。阿拉伯文本于1898年出版，但在出版后的一个世纪里，只引起了零星的关注，而且从未被翻译过。在第二年，项目小组将编写一篇关于“Fayyum的历史”中所描述的农村社会的历史论文，具体讨论村庄社区的伊斯兰化、他们的部落特征以及他们与伊克塔持有者的关系等问题。该项目的研究结果将由PI和RA共同撰写并出版为专著。在注释的翻译之前，将有一篇大约4万字的实质性历史文章。选定的材料也将发布在一个专门的网页上，由玛丽皇后学院历史系主办。该网页将为本科生和研究生介绍中世纪伊斯兰教的乡村历史。它还将允许访问从“法尤姆历史”收集的财政数据数据库。这将为更广泛的学术界提供服务，特别是对希望进一步利用这一独特窗口了解中世纪伊斯兰乡村历史的农业和经济历史学家。

The aim of this project is to make a major contribution to the knowledge and understanding of pre-modern rural societies in the Islamic world through a translation and study of 'History of the Fayyum', a unique and unparalleled tax register from a 13th century Egyptian province. The work known as Ta'rikh al-Fayyum wa-biladihi ('History of the Fayyum and its Villages'), written in 1243 by an official in the Ayyubid administration of Egypt, is the most detailed cadastral survey to have survived for any region of the medieval Islamic world. It is a first-hand account of the agricultural conditions in the province of the Fayyum in Middle Egypt, providing wealth of detail per village that surpasses, by far, any other comparable source. Since the archives of medieval Muslim states have been lost, this is as close as we get to original tax registers, a 'Domesday Book' of the medieval Egyptian countryside. By using the work in an imaginative way, it is possible to draw a picture of the village communities, their internal organization, and their relationship with the state - an otherwise impossible insight to the way of life of the peasantry, who formed the majority of the population in the medieval Islamic world. A study of 'History of the Fayyum' will seek to address three sets of questions which are fundamental to the social and economic history of medieval Islam: - Delineating the legal and economic status of medieval village communities, their relationship to the land, and their rights and duties vis-à-vis the iqta' holders. The rights and duties of the peasant under the system of iqta'- the Middle Eastern counterpart to European Feudalism - are still ill-understood, despite their obvious importance to the history of medieval Islam. - Explaining the way pre-modern village communities defined themselves, and in particular the pervasive tribal identity of the Fayyum village communities, a feature typical of much of the pre-modern Middle East. - Mapping the medieval process of conversion to Islam through a study of the geographical and economic boundaries between Muslims and Christians in the Fayyum tax register. The evidence from the 13th century will be compared to the rich papyrological evidence from pre-Islamic and early Islamic Fayyum, when the province was still predominantly Christian. The project team will include the Principal Investigator and a Research Assistant, to be hired for a period of 24 months on a full-time basis. The first year of the project will be devoted to an annotated translation of the work in consultation with extant manuscripts, aimed at surmounting problems of terminology, toponymy and presentation of numerical and geographical data. The Arabic text was published in 1898, but in the century since its publication attracted only sporadic attention, and was never translated. During the second year, the project team will prepare an historical essay on rural society as depicted in the 'History of the Fayyum', specifically addressing the questions of the Islamization of village communities, their tribal identity and their relations with the iqta' holders. The results of this project will be published as a monograph authored by the PI and the RA. The annotated translation will be preceded by a substantial historical essay of about 40,000 words. Selected material will also be published on a dedicated webpage to be hosted by the History Department at Queen Mary. The webpage will serve as an introduction to the rural history of medieval Islam for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also allow access to a database of fiscal data collected from the 'History of the Fayyum'. This will be a service to the wider academic community, and in particular to agrarian and economic historians who wish to make further use of this unique window into the history of the medieval Islamic countryside.