Monetization of taxation in Early Medieval Egypt: a documentary investigation

我的项目旨在调查埃及在9世纪初变得明显的税收货币化。通过利用大型多语种纪录片语料库，这项研究将为埃及历史的一个关键时期提供一个新的视角。我将着眼于确定阿巴斯帝国是中世纪历史最悠久的帝国之一，其当局何时、如何以及为什么放弃评估实物税收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，埃及的税收部分是以实物形式评估的，直到伊斯兰时期早期，然而，这种做法的证据在9世纪初左右的文献记录中消失了。这一变化并不是单独发生的，因为从8世纪初开始，在乌马耶德的统治下，国家对税收的控制一直在逐步收紧。为此，对埃及的法律地位进行了审查，从而允许征收更多的收入。此外，引入了一批新的穆斯林官员，他们是该地区的外来者，以管理正在出现的新制度，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。尽管有这些发展，但当阿巴斯王朝在750年掌权时，他们选择放弃实物征税，尽管这不可避免地会在该省引发进一步的问题和流动性危机。这一举措将永远改变埃及经济的面貌。我将主要利用与这些事件同时撰写的该地区的文件，尽可能近距离地重现这一变化是如何发生的，并分析其可能的原因和结果。

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.