Rural Economy and Tribal Society in Islamic Egypt : A Study of Al-Nābulusī's Villages of the Fayyum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rapoport, Yossef.

Series:

The Medieval Countryside

The Medieval Countryside ; v.19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Egypt--Rural conditions.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 pages)

Place of Publication:

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols Publishers, 2018.

Summary:

The 'Villages of the Fayyum' is a unique and unparalleled thirteenth-century Arabic tax register of the province of the Fayyum in Middle Egypt. Based on this tax-register, this book utilises quantitative research methods and spatial GIS analysis to provide a rich account of the rural economy of the medieval Fayyum, the tribal organization of the village communities, and their rights and duties in relation to the military landholders. It also draws on the rich documentary evidence of the Fayyum, which stretches back to the Greco-Roman and early Islamic periods, to trace the transformation of the Fayyum into a Muslim-majority and Arab province. This volume thus offers a radically new perspective on the social and economic history of the medieval Islamic countryside. It makes a major contribution to the history of Islamic Egypt, its rural economy, and to our understanding of taxation and administration under the Ayyubids. Most importantly, its argument for the metamorphosis of the Coptic peasantry into Muslim and tribal Arab society has profound implications for Middle Eastern history in general, and challenges our modern concept of Arab identity.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Measures, Weights, and Monetary Units

Introduction

Al-Nābulusī and the Villages of the Fayyum

The Fayyum, from the Ptolemies to the Ayyubids

Land, Water, and People in Ayyubid Fayyum

Subsistence and Tribute

Sugar, Orchards, and Markets

Landholding and the Regime of Iqṭāʿ

Village and Tribe

Christians and Muslims

The Tribal Conversion of the Fayyum

Conclusion

Biblio­graphy

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

2-503-57530-7

OCLC:

1089526739