Daisy Livingston
Durham University, History, Faculty Member
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University of Hamburg, Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts, Post-DocSOAS University of London, History, Alumnus, and 2 more add
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History, Arabic Papyrology, Archives, Micro History, Social History, Political History, and 15 moreMedieval History, Archival Studies, Numismatics, Archaeology, Medieval Studies, Islamic Studies, History of Religion, Semitic languages, Microhistory and History of Everyday Life, Islamic Historiography, Legal History, Mamluk Studies, History of Archives, Medieval Islamic History, and Mamluk History edit
'God will make them rich’ … unless her father steals the marriage gift! In Wiebke Beyer and Karin Becker (eds.) Artefact of the Month no. 13, CSMC Hamburg. Available online at https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/publications/aom/013-en.html
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The scholarly discussion of archives in the premodern Islamicate world is beset by problematic generalisations. Such a view to some degree stems from a top-down view of archiving that focuses on state archives at the expense of practices... more
The scholarly discussion of archives in the premodern Islamicate world
is beset by problematic generalisations. Such a view to some degree stems from a top-down view of archiving that focuses on state archives at the expense of practices of archiving occurring outside a chancery context. This article challenges the assumptions that support an enduring narrative of paucity, by examining non-chancery archival practices in Mamlūk Cairo on the eve of the Ottoman conquest in 922/1517. In doing this, it looks to some of the surviving original documentary material: legal property deeds with connections to waqf
endowments whose potential to shed light on archival history has largely remained untapped. Surviving in large numbers in modern collections in Cairo, these documents contain abundant traces of their own archival histories. By presenting a micro-scale case study drawn from this material, this article shows the energetic and meticulous documentary and archival practices that surrounded property transactions in late Mamlūk Cairo.
is beset by problematic generalisations. Such a view to some degree stems from a top-down view of archiving that focuses on state archives at the expense of practices of archiving occurring outside a chancery context. This article challenges the assumptions that support an enduring narrative of paucity, by examining non-chancery archival practices in Mamlūk Cairo on the eve of the Ottoman conquest in 922/1517. In doing this, it looks to some of the surviving original documentary material: legal property deeds with connections to waqf
endowments whose potential to shed light on archival history has largely remained untapped. Surviving in large numbers in modern collections in Cairo, these documents contain abundant traces of their own archival histories. By presenting a micro-scale case study drawn from this material, this article shows the energetic and meticulous documentary and archival practices that surrounded property transactions in late Mamlūk Cairo.
Research Interests:
This article follows prevailing trends in research on the archival practices of the premodern Middle East by emphasizing the importance of documentary life cycles. Specifically, it examines the afterlives of a micro-sample of documents... more
This article follows prevailing trends in research on the archival practices of the premodern Middle East by emphasizing the importance of documentary life cycles. Specifically, it examines the afterlives of a micro-sample of documents from an underexplored historical context: the administration of amirs who held iqṭāʿ land grants in areas of Egypt outside Cairo. Though iqṭāʿ holders (muqṭaʿs) were key administrative actors in the Mamluk sultanate, we know little about their activities on the ground. The material investigated here is related to the administration of justice in far-flung districts of Egypt, one of the less-known roles of these muqṭaʿs, and is preserved in the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Contextualizing the documents by relating them to the activities of several named amirs, I delineate three stages in the documents' afterlives: archiving, reuse, and disposal. I rely on the materiality of the documents, an indispensable tool for identifying the more enigmatic aspects of documentary life cycles. I then turn to reflect on what these afterlives can tell us about the archival spaces of this administrative setting. By examining the muqṭaʿs' paperwork, I highlight shifts in meaning that documents underwent over time, calling attention to the phenomenon of casual storage, or "documents lying around."
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Programme of workshop hosted by the Cluster of Excellence 'Understanding Written Artefacts' at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg.