[Fustat Papyrus] [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Series:

Bloomsbury Arcadian Online Library: History of Science and Medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manuscripts (Papyri)--Early works to 1800.

Manuscripts (Papyri).

Religion--Early works to 1800.

Religion.

Literature--Early works to 1800.

Literature.

Medicine--Early works to 1800.

Medicine.

Business--Early works to 1800.

Business.

Commerce--Early works to 1800.

Commerce.

Fusṭāṭ (Cairo, Egypt)--History--Early works to 1800.

Fusṭāṭ (Cairo, Egypt).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly in the collection of H.P. Kraus, New York.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (20 fragmentary papyrus leaves mounted between glass)

Place of Publication:

[Fustat: s.n., 8th-10th century]

Notes:

During the 19th and early 20th century several discoveries of Arabic papyri were made in Egypt, mostly in Upper Egypt, where the soil was more conducive to the preservation of organic matter. These dicoveries are now mostly in Insitutional collections around the world, including the National Library, Cairo, the British Library, London, the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Musee du Louvre, Paris, the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, the Staats-und Universitats-Bibliotek, Hamburg, the Institut fur Papyrologie, Heidelberg University and the Oriental Institute, Chicago. Of the discoveries unearthed at Fustat, only the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and Cambridge University Library possess substantial collections. The H.P. Kraus group, of which these twenty documents formed a small part, is another Fustat group.

Fustat was the capital city founded by the Arab general 'Amir ibn al-'As in 640 A.D. after his conquest of Egypt. It remained the capital throughout the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ikhshidid and Fatimid periods, finally being destroyed by fire in 1163 A.D. It was the government, commercial and social centre of Egypt and the subject matter of the papyrus fragments reflects this cosmopolitan variety.

The papyri themselves are written in a variety of scripts including a variety of kufic and a range of cursive scripts. Several are palimpsests, the previous texts being erased or overwritten. The existence of such a large group of papyrus documents from this period is interesting evidence of the uses of different writing materials and of the spread of the technology of paper-making across the Islamic empire. Although paper-making know-how was introduced into the eastern Islamic world as early as 746 A.D. (at a battle near Samarkand in 751 A.D. the Arabs captured several Chinese prisoners who knew how to make paper) its use spread westwards across the Islamic empire relatively slowly. At the same time vellum (parchment), made from the dried and cured hides of domestic animals, was extremely expensive to produce and was reserved primarily for the writing of Qu'ans and occasionally other religious texts. In Mesopotamia the use of paper developed significantly during the late 8th and 9th centuries and was a major factor in the explosion of intellectual activity which occurred in that region from aound 800-1100 A.D. This scholarly activity consisted of the translation of Greek (and Indian) texts, which had effectively lain dormant for centuries during the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire, into Arabic. These texts, which included literary, medical, scientific, astronomical, mathematical, geographical, cosmographical, philosophical, religious and mystical works, encompassed the sum of learning of the ancient world - both East and West. The Arab and Persian scholars of the period, including such luminaries as Al-Kindi, Al-Sufi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Al-Razi (Rhazes), Al-Farabi (Alfarabi), Al-Biruni, and Al-Ghazali, then commented on and developed the ideas of the Greeks, Romans and Indians, and laid the foundations of the Arab intellectual gift to the world, which resulted eventually in the European Renaissance. The ability to use paper, which could be manufactured in large amounts quickly and relatively cheaply, was a major factor in this intellectual enlightenment. Like the knowledge of the classical world, the technology of paper-making spread across the Arab world and North Africa into Southern Spain (then an Islamic kingdom) and thence into Europe. The period which these papyri encompass (8th-10th centuries) was an interesting period in this context. By the year 1000 A.D., although in Egypt and Northern Africa vellum was still used for the writing of Qur'ans, in Iran and Mesopotamia paper was being used, even for the writing of the holy text. A Qur'an in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul, is dated 993 A.D. (Mss.453-6; for a single leaf in the Nasser D Khalili collection, London, see Deroche 1992, no.83), while in 1001 A.D. Ibn al-Bawwab wrote his seminal copy of the Qur'an (now in the Chester Beaty Linrary Dublin, ms.1431, see Rice 1955). In the Islamic West at this stage vellum was still used for Qur'ans and for many other religious texts (witness a vellum copy of a Malikite text copied in Southern Spain in 1021 A.D. - see lot 25 in this sale). This relative conservatism in relation to writing materials was to continue in the Morocco and Spain for some centuries, especially for the writing of Qur'ans.

The attempt at developing not only paper-making technology in Egypt, but also the technology of printing (also gained from Chinese), is witnessed by the existence of a group of 11th century xylograph printed documents and prayers, of Egyptian origin, and mostly printed on long, thin strips of paper akin to talismanic scrolls. A single piece was sold in these rooms 22nd Ocotber 1993, lot 25, while extensive collections exist in the General Egyptian Book Organisation (formerly the Khedival Library) and the Library of Princeton Universtiy, New Jersey. Interestingly, the use of xylograph (wood block) printing for Arabic characters (even the angular kufic scripts) was not deemed a success and quickly died out. The use of printing did not return to Egypt until the end of the 18th century, but the technology itself was passed on, both across North Africa to Southern Spain and through the Mediterranean maritime contacts of the Fatimid Empire to Europe, leading ultimately to the Guthenberg Bible and William Caxton's printing press.

In dynastic terms, the 8th-10th centuries in Egypt saw the passing of the Umayyad dynasty, the Abbasids, the Tulunids, the Ikhshidids and the arrival of the Fatimids. This was the period when the Islamic empire was at its highest point of glory, when the boundaries of the empire were expanding as far as Afghanistan and Central Asia in the East, and Spain in the West, when the religious, intellectual, cultural and geo-political aspects of Islam were brimming with confidence and shining brightly during the European Dark Ages. This is historial context of these present papyrus fragments.

Local Notes:

Mounted between glass.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.