medieval history of Egypt

This article studies the life and works of a hardly known littérateur and anthologist who lived in early Abbasid Baghdad and al-Fustat: Yusuf b. Ibrahim b. al-Daya. The first part of the article gives an attempted biography on the basis of personal information that can be found in anecdotes that are said to be taken from Yusuf ’s works. In the second part, these anecdotes and their relation to Yusuf ’s largely neglected literary output will be studied.

קהילת "אלשאמיין", היא קהילת בני ארץ ישראל בפוסטאט, ראתה ברס"ג את אביה הרוחני, אך לא ידוע היה למה. במאמר זה נחשפת דרכו של רבי מצליח גאון, אחד ממנהיגי הקהילה שגלה אליה מדמשק והקים בה את ישיבת "גאון יעקב" ונהג את נשיאותו ברמה. מתברר שהוא ראה עצמו כממשיכו של רס"ג, עד שאת דרשותיו ביסס על ציטוטים מעובדים של דברי רס"ג, בתוספת פתיחות וסיומים.
המאמר מלווה בבירור מקיף אודות קשרים אלו ואודות זהותו של אחד מאנשי הקשר החשובים בפרשה: רבי זכאי, הסופר ואולי גם הדיין. בשלב זה מוהדרת גם דרשתו של רבי מצליח לעשרת הדברות, שכפי הנראה נאמרה בחג השבועות. אף היא מבוססת על דרשתו של רס"ג לחג השבועות.

Publisher's description:

The lost archive of the Fatimid caliphate (909–1171) survived in an unexpected place: the storage room, or geniza, of a synagogue in Cairo, recycled as scrap paper and deposited there by medieval Jews. Marina Rustow tells the story of this extraordinary find, inviting us to reconsider the longstanding but mistaken consensus that before 1500 the dynasties of the Islamic Middle East produced few documents, and preserved even fewer.

Beginning with government documents before the Fatimids and paper’s westward spread across Asia, Rustow reveals a millennial tradition of state record keeping whose very continuities suggest the strength of Middle Eastern institutions, not their weakness. Tracing the complex routes by which Arabic documents made their way from Fatimid palace officials to Jewish scribes, the book provides a rare window onto a robust culture of documentation and archiving not only comparable to that of medieval Europe, but, in many cases, surpassing it. Above all, Rustow argues that the problem of archives in the medieval Middle East lies not with the region’s administrative culture, but with our failure to understand preindustrial documentary ecology.

Illustrated with stunning examples from the Cairo Geniza, this compelling book advances our understanding of documents as physical artifacts, showing how the records of the Fatimid caliphate, once recovered, deciphered, and studied, can help change our thinking about the medieval Islamicate world and about premodern polities more broadly.

An interdisciplinary study that draws together geography, historical navigation data, and eyewitness accounts into a comprehensive picture of one of the world’s great rivers.

This ground-breaking view of the navigational landscape of the Nile in medieval Egypt draws on a broad range of sources: medieval Arabic geographies; traveler accounts; archaeology; and meteorological, hydrological, and geological studies. John Cooper first charts the changing geography of the Nile waterways, particularly in the Delta, from the eve of Islam to the early modern period, and logs the “rise and fall” of these waterways for natural and/or anthropogenic reasons. He then presents a new perspective on the Nile, drawing on traveler accounts and environmental data to portray the river as a uniquely challenging and sometimes dangerous navigational environment requiring extensive local knowledge by skilled and hard-working Nile navigators. Finally, he looks at how the main Delta and Red Sea ports of medieval Egypt fitted into the navigational landscape described, explaining how these ports were affected by changes occurring to the navigational landscape, and how they reflected the navigational conditions of the Nile and surrounding seas.

Bu kitap, Orta-Çağ Tarihi hakkında bilgilenmek isteyen okura dönemin temel karakteristiklerini tanıtmayı amaçlamaktadır. Kitabın merkezinde Akdeniz Havzası ve onun yarattığı uygarlıklar duruyor. Dönemi, üç ana coğrafya etrafında yansıtmaya çalıştık: Avrupa, Bizans dünyası ve İslam’la yoğrulmuş Orta-Doğu. Yazarın hedefi, Akdeniz uygarlıkları çerçevesinde Orta-Çağ halklarının ekonomik, toplumsal, siyasal, hukuksal ve dinsel gerçeklerini olabildiğince kapsamlı biçimde tartışmaktır.

While scholars may know that the 'sultan of Babylon' sent Frederick II a 'white parrot', few are aware of the existence of four sketches, indicating it was a Sulphur or Yellow-crested Cockatoo. As these were made two and a half centuries before what was thought to be the earliest European image of the Australasian cockatoo - in Andrea Mantegna's 1496 Madonna della Vittoria - the authors consider the events and shared interests that led the sultan to give this bird to Frederick and how it would have arrived on the Apennine Peninsula in the first half of the thirteenth century.
Published with Jukka Salo, Pekka Niemelä and Simo Örmä.

Primera traducción completa en español de la "Vida de San Luis" del senescal de Champaña Jean de Joinville (c. 1225-1317), una de las obras más famosas, interesantes y atractivas de toda la Edad Media. Esta biografía del rey Luis IX de Francia (1214-1270) es, al mismo tiempo, una autobiografía de su autor en forma de memorias personales. La mayor parte de sus recuerdos se refieren a los seis años que pasó junto a San Luis en Egipto y Tierra Santa durante la Séptima Cruzada (1248-1254).  La "Vida de San Luis" constituye una excepcional ventana abierta al mundo y a las gentes del siglo XIII. La traducción se acompaña de introducción, notas, apéndices, mapas e índices.

First complete translation into Spanish of the "Life of Saint Louis" by seneschal of Champagne Jean de Joinville (c. 1225-1317), one of the most famous, interesting and attractive works of the entire Middle Ages. This biography of King Louis IX of France (1214-1270) is, at the same time, an autobiography of its author in the form of personal memoirs. Most of his memories refer to the six years he spent with Saint Louis in Egypt and the Holy Land during the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254). The "Life of San Luis" constitutes an exceptional window open to the world and to the people of the thirteenth century. The translation is accompanied by an introduction, notes, appendices, maps and indexes.

After the conquest of Islam, scholars argue for a ‘crisis of the Coptic identity’. With a major focus on the Mamluks’ period, they propagate that the Mamluks imposed strict restrictions upon Copts which turned them into a marginalized minority. The historical sources of that period are loaded with intercommunal tensions among the ‘ordinary people’ which increases suspicion and tension between both communities in our modern times.
In order to get a deeper insight into the reasons behind the turbulent intercommunal relations, and highlight the social change in medieval Egyptian society, I will analyze the religious speech of both Muslim and Christian communities, using Bourdieu’s habitus theory.
This study argues that the fading boundaries, resulting from the period of the Shi‘i Fatimids’ rule, led to a struggle of religious identities among both the Sunni Muslims and the Christians. Upon the succession of the Sunnis to power, Sunnis emphasized their religious identity, in relation to the other, based on what is not, rather than what it is. A strategy which was followed by the Christians as well. This led to reciprocal hatred and interreligious violence which brought the Coptic Christians to a low point in their history under the rule of the Mamluks. Consequently, a ‘Coptic’ Christian identity emerged in order to face the developing Sunni Muslim identity.

This study scrutinizes the meaning and use of “Copt” and “Coptic” in the Middle Ages, when three interrelated—yet distinct and, at times, contradictory—“sets” of definitions circulated among Christians and Muslims. The first set comes from linguistic etymologies and mythical histories. In that context, this study contests the historicity of “Copt” in the earliest versions of the written Talmud. A second set of definitions emerged from Arabic historical and ethnogenetic narratives, while a third set reflects religious communal identity. Here, the evidence suggests that “Copt” and “Jacobite” were not only used interchangeably, but that “Jacobite” was often preferred and, at times, exclusive to the Copts. Significantly, the communal boundaries of the third set of definitions blatantly transgress those of the second, and even the first. In addition, this study demonstrates that pre-modern texts switched from one definition to the other without pause, which places a greater burden on scholars to clearly discern the contexts of any attestation for “Copt[-ic].” The three sets of definitions parsed here challenge contemporary usage among the Coptic community, church, and academics, which largely depend on the paradigm of the nation state.

This study analyses the original waqf documents belonging to Qijmās al-Isḥāqī, an amir who lived in late Mamluk Egypt and Syria, from three perspectives: first, the types of assets possessed or endowed by Qijmās and the creation of these assets; second, the contexts and purposes of establishing waqfs by comparing the data obtained from the documents and the life history of Qijmās, which was reconstructed from literary sources; and third, how his personal relationships reflected the character of his waqfs. Further, this study reveals how he selectively and strategically used the waqf system for personal and/or public benefit at different stages of his life and according to the prevalent social circumstances. This case study proves that the waqf system had multi-dimensional and complex functions: in addition to realizing its universal purpose of enabling the performance of charitable deeds, the waqf system fulfilled the founder’s particularistic secular intentions and expectations.

Abstract – Historians of medieval Islamic society have not paid the same attention to night activities as a topic for social history, as specialists of the medieval west have. Examining cases and narrative sources in Cairo and Damascus, this paper presents the complex reality of a Mamluk city that cannot be reduced to the dangers felt by its inhabitants at nightfall. A public lighting system and night markets in the Mamluk city facilitated circulation throughout the evening and for a great part of the night. Public spaces were monitored and controlled by authorities and neither Cairo nor Damascus should be seen as enclosed and partitioned spaces. Commercial exchanges, public entertainment and traffic contributed to extend daytime activities beyond nightfall and to cast the urban space as a place of socialization. Besides, Mamluk power and religious authorities also invested the city through celebrations and ceremonies performed by night which often turned into popular festivals and outlets while urban elites considered night-time as an opportunity to perfect their social role in a more intimate way and to provide evidence of their elevated status. This paper describes the broad range of individual and collective night practices and restores these activities to their rightful place in Cairene and Damascene daily life.

Keywords : Mamluk Era, Cairo, Damascus, night-time, social practices, daily life, criminality, vol, police, public celebrations, public space, lighting, illuminations

Résumé – En tant qu’objet d’histoire sociale du monde musulman médiéval, la nuit n’a pas suscité jusqu’à maintenant d’intérêt comparable à celui manifesté, depuis de nombreuses années, par les historiens de l’Occident médiéval. Les exemples du Caire et de Damas, étudiés dans cet article à partir des sources narratives, mettent en évidence la réalité complexe d’une ville mamelouke, qui ne peut se réduire, à la nuit tombée, à la peur qu’elle aurait inspirée à ses habitants. Partiellement éclairés, les rues et les marchés étaient fréquentés tout au long de la soirée et pendant une grande partie de la nuit. Loin d’être abandonnée par les autorités, la ville était surveillée et contrôlée, sans pour autant être transformée en espace clos et cloisonné. Commerces, divertissements et circulation contribuaient en effet à prolonger le jour et à faire de l’espace public un lieu de sociabilité nocturne. La nuit, la ville était également investie par le pouvoir politique et les autorités religieuses lors de célébrations qui, bien souvent, prenaient la forme de fêtes populaires, véritables exutoires pour les populations. Par ailleurs, au-delà de ces manifestations publiques, les élites urbaines mettaient à profit la nuit pour parfaire leur rôle social, dans un cadre plus intime, et ainsi dispenser les générosités nécessaires à la consolidation de leur statut. Ainsi, le présent article cherche à dépeindre l’étendue de ces pratiques nocturnes, qu’elles soient individuelles ou collectives, et à mettre en lumière leur importance dans la vie quotidienne des Cairotes et des Damascènes à la fin du Moyen Âge.

Mots-clés : Période mamelouke, Le Caire, Damas, nuit, pratiques sociales, vie quotidienne, criminalité, vol, police, fêtes publiques, espace public, éclairage, illuminations

Before the First Crusade, the maritime cities of Italy imported precious objects from Islamic regions. The question of what they exported in return has long occupied historians. Due to the large economic disparity between Latin Italy and the wealthier House of Islam, human trafficking offered a strong profit opportunity to merchants from Amalfi, Pisa and other ports. This was because the price of a slave in Egypt or North Africa, at around 20 gold dinars, represented a large sum in the silver currency zones of Latin Europe, especially compared to low prices in Italy. Even moderate numbers of trafficked humans may therefore have provided the capital for further maritime economic expansion. Moreover, slaves offered a commodity with low infrastructure and transportation requirements, unlike bulk agricultural products, as well as unique advantages in market access, which suggests that slave trading preceded investment in other branches of commerce.

Partindo de uma leitura da "História do Patriarcado Copta de Alexandria", crônica oficial desta instituição, este trabalho tem por objetivo reconstituir, de forma sinóptica, o funcionamento econômico da Igreja Copta nos estágios iniciais do Egito islâmico – ou seja, desde a conquista do Vale do Nilo pelos árabes, em 641, até as vésperas da tomada da região pelos fatímidas, em 969. No âmbito de tal reconstituição, deu-se especial atenção às assimétricas interações econômicas entre o governo islâmico e a comunidade cristã egípcia, e às estratégias de arrecadação praticadas pelos diferentes tipos de profissionais vinculados à Igreja Copta – tais como monges, bispos, clérigos casados e patriarcas. Espera-se que o texto contribua para a elaboração de uma futura história comparada da administração eclesiástica na Antiguidade Tardia e no Medievo.

The Nile flood remained a potent phenomenon in the lives of Medieval Egyptians just as it had in the pharaonic era. On its success depended the harvest; navigation and the mercantile economy; state revenues; and the very stability of Egyptian society. Although Medieval Egyptians now viewed the annual cycle of the river through the monotheistic lenses of Islam and Christianity, they continued to perceive it as an manifestation of divine providence and, in consequence, a judgement on Egypt’ s rulers and people. A narrative from the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria (HPA), based on a lost Coptic source, probably one John the Deacon, highlights the role that the flood was accorded in contestations of religious authenticity and political legitimacy in the Egyptian capital al-FusṭƗ ṭ in the 8th century AD. Using the progress of the flood as an indicator, John has the first Abbasid governor of Egypt declare: “We desire to know which of the religions is the true one.” In the subsequent narrative, this Christian author not surprisingly delivers vindication to his co-religionists. But in the meantime, he sheds light on the role of the flood and the ceremonials surrounding it in validating religious belief, devotional practice, and political legitimacy in a multi-faith Egyptian society.

Resumen: En este artículo se estudia la relación entre la intertextualidad y la definición de maravillas en el Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis: el relato de la peregrinación a Tierra Santa del franciscano irlandés Symon Semeonis entre 1323 y 1324. Para ello, se presenta en primer lugar la tradición textual de la obra, para posteriormente comentar el viaje y estudiar los aspectos más relevantes de cada etapa. Tras ello, se analiza filológicamente tres casos de intertextualidad (dos de ellos no detectados previamente) para entender el concepto de maravilla y la metodología utilizada por Symon Semeonis.

Abstract: This article looks at the connection between intertextuality and the definition of mirabilia (wonders) in the Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis, a work that recounts the pilgrimage to the Holy Land made by the Irish Franciscan Symon Semeonis in 1323-1324. The article first presents the work's textual tradition and then goes on to describe the narrative, including the most important aspects of each leg of the journey. Finally, three instances of intertextuality (two of which have not been noted until now) are analyzed philologically in order to shed light on the concept of mirabilia and the way that Symon Semeonis went about writing his work.

Obadiah was a philosophically-inclined convert to Judaism from Islam who wrote to Maimonides with a sensitive set of questions that embraced Jewish identity, theology, comparative religion, and social and religious practice. Maimonides dealt with many of these issues at greater length and more systematically in other works, but his responsum to Obadiah offers important information about how he implemented these ideas in practice. By situating the responsum to Obadiah within the broader context of Maimonides’ thought in general and his writings on conversion to Judaism in particular, I show how he shaped the law to meet both Obadiah’s personal needs and the social needs of converts to Judaism more generally.

В статье исследуется свидетельство айюбидского чиновника Абӯ ‛Усмāна
ан-Нāбулусӣ аc.-C.афадӣ аш-Шафи‛ӣ (1192–1261) в книге “История Файйума и его
округов” (“Китāб тāрӣx̆ ал-Файйӯм ва билāдиха”) относительно населения Файйума.
Автор статьи предполагает, что под оседлыми жителями в сочинении ан-Нāбулусӣ
понимаются копты, проживавшие в Файйуме. Их численность составляла 1142 чело-
века. Исходя из того, что численность христианского населения оазиса на момент
арабского завоевания в VII в. составляла предположительно 70–120 тыс. человек,
автор статьи пытается объяснить, как могло произойти столь значительное ее со-
кращение. Рассматриваются три возможные причины: исламизация Египта, в ходе
которой страна, бывшая в VII в. христианской, к XIV в. превратилась в мусульман-
скую с коптским меньшинством; природные катастрофы; “бедуинизация” Файйума,
в процессе которой копты могли быть физически вытеснены с плодородных земель
провинции.
Ключевые слова: средневековый Египет, Файйум, копты, бедуины, ан-Набулуси,
“Китаб тарих ал-Файйум”.
“DISAPPEARED” COPTS-CHRISTIANS OF FAIYUM
The author studies a reference from “The History of Faiyum and its Villages” (Kitāb
Ta’rīkh al-Fayyūm wa-bilādihi) written by a high ranking Ayyubid official Abū ‘Uthmān
an-Nābulusī al-Ṣafadī al-Shafi‘ī (1192–1261) concerning the population of the Faiyum
province. The author supposes that the majority of settled ḥaḍar communities mentioned
by an-Nābulusī were Christians. Their population in the Faiyum by 1243 when an-Nābulusī
composed his work, was 1142 adult males. Keeping in mind that by the seventh century when
Egypt was conquered by the Arabs the Christian population of the Faiyum was something
between 70 000 and 120 000 the author tries to answer the question of what the reasons
were for such significant decrease, and considers three possible factors: Islamization of
Egypt, when the country which was Christian in the seventh century turned by the fourteenth
century into Muslim with a Coptic minority; natural disasters; “Bedouinization” of Faiyum,
when the Copts might have been physically pushed out of the fertile lands of the province.
Keywords: Medieval Egypt, Faiyum, Copts, Bedouins, an-Nabulusi, “Kitab Tarikh
al-Faiyum”.

Em algum momento da segunda metade do século VII ou do início do século VIII, Agatão, padre e monge, deixou seus mestres espirituais no Mosteiro de São Macário de Sceté para, seguindo o exemplo de São Simeão, o Estilita, passar o resto de sua vida sobre uma coluna. Tendo introduzido este novo tipo de ascese no Egito, realizou curas e milagres e morreu reconhecido como santo. Pouquíssimos dados sobreviveram a seu respeito, dos quais os principais constam no texto que o Sinaxário Copta traz no dia da comemoração de sua morte. O objetivo deste artigo é realizar uma leitura deste encômio e de alguns documentos conexos para, buscando reconstituir algumas das relações que aí se evidenciam, tecer considerações sobre as formas da vida monástica e da dissidência eclesial entre os cristãos coptas na fase inicial do domínio islâmico do Egito.

This essay examines S. D. Goitein's tendency to find strong women in Geniza documents. I situate this predilection at the intersection of three separate currents. The first is the growing interest in women's history in the late 1960s and early 1970s, precisely the time in which Goitein was working on the third volume of A Mediterranean Society. The second is a stereotype with a long history that sees Egyptian women as ruling over their weak husbands. Finally, Goitein seemed to have an interest in dominant female figures even before he turned to the study of the Geniza. I conclude by suggesting that, instead of describing certain women as strong, it is more useful to explore what the sources and types of strength for Jewish women in Egypt were and how they accessed, activated, and deployed their resources.

This is a description and assessment of the career of al-Ṣāḥib b. Shukr (548-622/1153-1225), the most important vizier of Ayyūbid Egypt. Born in the Delta, and raised in an influential family, he studied to become a jurist. After serving as a judge (qāḍī), he entered the administration of Saladin and subsequently became the vizier of two Ayyūbid sultans, al-ʿ Ādil and his son al-Kā-mil. His ruthlessness in raising money for them by transforming the Egyptian vizierate into a fund raising institution was a critical factor in their ability to stay in power, and in saving Egypt from the Fifth Crusade. At the same time he patronized the religious class and built the first Mālikī law school (madrasa) in Cairo. His vizierate represented a nexus of administrative and religious authority in Egypt.

Taking into consideration the absence of information about this kind of punishment (crucifying) in the period discussed , we can assume that the dominating reason for choosing this punishment was the very fact of uprising and robbery (granting iqtas) during the particularly dangerous for al-Zahir Baybars power transitive period of time rather than the Shiite slogans of the uprising’s participants.
It seems, that the uprising itself involved rather marginal groups of Cairo’s population who perceived the general confusion during the power transitive period as the power vacuum.
In this context the particular importance lies not in the participants’ slogans (actually, we know nothing about their political and social programme) but in that danger which the new malik considered in this uprising for his still unstable position and in the frames of absence or weakness Mamluks own political institutions.

The Mamluk period is the key period in the Islamic history of Egypt. It is peculiar due to the Turks domination in the political sphere. The scholars define its chronological frames from 1250 to 1517 [2, c. 271]. The first date is related to the Mamluks’ penetration into the highest echelons of power (co-reign with the last Ayyubid ruler in Egypt), while the second date is related to the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and disappearing of the independent Mamluk state.
Chronological frames of the present paper encompass the period from 650 AH (1252 AD) to 678 AH (1279 AD), i.e. from the beginning of the independent Mamluk ruling to the early reign of the malik al-Mansur Qalawun [1279-1290]. It seems that the 27-years period allows tracing the trends in the dynamics of the amirs’ corpus.
The aim of the present paper is to define the trends in the number of the amirs’ corpus in the early Bahrite period within the context of ‘malik-amir’ relations.

Edition of a bilingual Greek-Arabic protocol and two entagia related to compulsory service. The first of these is an Arabic-Greek demand note issued by the chancery of the Egyptian governor ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz son of Marwān. The second one was written in Coptic by the administration of the dux Flavius Atias. It mentions a visit of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in Alexandria, which is also recorded in the History of the Patriarchs

Islamic authorities in Cairo were closely linked to the rule of appointment of the head of the Ethiopian church by the patriarch of Alexandria. These relations enjoyed an unprecedented regularity under the reign of the Solomonic kings and the Mamluk sultans. At least thirteen Ethiopian embassies arrived in Cairo between 1274 and 1516, while four letters were sent by the sultan to Ethiopia, in addition to the patriarch’s correspondence with the Christian king, part of which was dictated by the sultan himself. The study of these interactions, and especially of the Ethiopian diplomatic letters copied in Arabic by Egyptian chroniclers, highlights an important aspect of their diplomatic relations: the multifaceted issue of the protection of Egypt’s Christians by the king of Ethiopia and of Ethiopia’s Muslims by the sultan of Egypt and Syria. The Solomonic diplomacy first formulated this mirroring of Egyptian and Ethiopian communities. It was updated however in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by several episodes of violence against the Christian subjects of the sultan and by the king’s wars against Muslim people in Ethiopia. Moreover, the Mamluk diplomacy endorsed it in the fifteenth century in its relations with the Christian king as well as with his Muslim challenger in eastern Ethiopia.

Petitions from the Cairo Geniza often emphasize that the petitioner is lonely or "cut off" (munqaṭiʿ) from social support. Such claims are gendered, as they are more common in women's petitions than in men's, and women occasionally use explicitly gendered expressions to highlight their social isolation. Claiming to lack social support had a special valency in medieval Islamicate societies due to the primacy of reciprocal social relationships in these societies. Since women's access to cultural and social capital was more limited than men's, women lacking effective and supportive male kin were particularly vulnerable and were recognized as deserving justice. Studying claims of social isolation thus sheds light on the social predicament of Jewish women in medieval Egypt. Finally, recognizing the currency of social isolation in women's petition helps identify an opposite trend of social belonging in men's petitions.

and by an Urbach fellowship from the Jewish Memorial Foundation. 2 At the same time, the present chapter is constricted to a narrow aspect of law as a way of organizing social relationships. Therefore, realms of Jewish law (halakhah) such as ritual law will not be addressed.

No tempo do governo eclesiástico do Papa Simão de Alexandria (689-701), um "sacerdote do povo das Índias" apresentou-se em sua corte pedindo que lhe ordenasse um bispo para sua comunidade de origem. O fato de o patriarca estar submetido ao governo muçulmano, mas não seu visitante estrangeiro, contudo, impediu que o caso tivesse uma solução simples. O objetivo deste trabalho é, partindo deste episódio, tecer algumas considerações a respeito de como se deu o fechamento do horizonte índico das missões e relações eclesiásticas da Igreja Ortodoxa Copta, ainda antes do primeiro século de domínio árabe muçulmano no Egito.

In collaboration with Efraim Lev.
This article discusses the phenomenon of dynasties of Jewish physicians in the Late Middle Ages in Egypt and Syria. Based on Muslim Arabic historiographical literature on the one hand, and Jewish sources such as Genizah documents on the other, this paper reconstructs fourteen dynasties of Jewish physicians that were active in the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). Examination of the families reveals that the most distinguished dynasties of court physicians were of Jewish origin, and had to convert to Islam during the Mamluk period. Moreover, the office of the “Head of the Physicians” was occupied mainly by members of these convert Jewish dynasties. This situation stands in stark contrast to the pre-Mamluk period, in which dynasties of unconverted Jewish court physicians flourished. However, Jewish sources reveal that dynasties of doctors who were also communal leaders continued to be active also during the Mamluk period.

This article looks at the connection between intertextuality and the definition of mirabilia (wonders) in the Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis, a work that recounts the pilgrimage to the Holy Land made by the Irish Franciscan Symon Semeonis in 1323-1324. The article first presents the work's textual tradition and then goes on to describe the narrative, including the most important aspects of each leg of the journey. Finally, three instances of intertextuality (two of which have not been noted until now) are analyzed philologically in order to shed light on the concept of mirabilia and the way that Symon Semeonis went about writing his work.

É um relativo consenso entre os especialistas que o período de governo fatímida do Egito (969-1171), foi, com a exceção de curtos intervalos, provavelmente o mais tranquilo e próspero para os judeus e cristãos desde a conquista islâmica do Vale do Nilo até a Contemporaneidade. Esta era de ouro para a Dhimmah, entretanto, não se deveu a alguma excepcional tolerância desta dinastia xiita, mas pode ser considerada como um dos resultados fortuitos da complexa conjuntura política do Egito e do Levante no interior do ecúmeno islâmico dos séculos IX e X AD. O objetivo deste paper é reconstituir algumas das tramas que compuseram esta conjuntura, usando, neste horizonte, a trajetória dos cristãos coptas como uma espécie de estudo de caso.

De 734 a 741 AD, al-Qasim ibn Ubaydallâh governou o Egito, então uma parte do califado omíada. Durante este período, manteve uma política ao mesmo tempo de proximidade e de agressividade para com os cristãos coptas, caracterizada pela execução daquilo que bem poderiam ser chamados de ritos de humilhação destes. Esse governo e esse relacionamento foram registrados principalmente na História do Patriarcado Copta de Alexandria, crônica oficial desta comunidade religiosa, o que possui importantes consequências cognitivas. Este artigo objetiva retomar a narrativa desta interação de forma analítica, chamando atenção para alguns dos contextos sociopolíticos e religiosos e dos clichês literários e teológicos que nela se fazem presentes.

During the period 1252-1300 AD there was a significant growth in the number of the amirs corpus in the Mamluk state in Egypt. This trend had become apparent before al-Mansur Qalawun’s ascent to power and only strengthened during the reign of the first Qalawunids. Correspondently, there was further growth in the imbalances identified in the first part: the pace of territorial expansion could not cover the pace of the growth in amirs number, the conflicts between ‘old’ and ‘new’ amirs, as well as between various amirs groups escalated,
In 1252-1300 AD the significant evolution of the institution of ‘amir’ itself was occurring. While on the initial stage of the Mamluk state development the amirs enjoyed a special status, which limited the maliks’ capacities to punish them, this status is gradually disappearing during the reign of the first Qalawunids, amirs are becoming to a larger extent the objects of the sultans’ will. On the other hand, the amirs’ influence on the political and social processes is growing up, a strong dependence of a ruler on the support from various Mamluk groups is developing. The rulers faced a problem and complexity to establish a more or less loyal to them core of amirs, who would be connected to them with strong personal relations, including the mutual past. The process of evolution of the institution ‘amir’ was related closely to the evolution of the institution of ‘malik’.
The mathematically identified politically significant corpus of ‘important amirs’ could not become such a core, since it included the amirs of various origin. Such situation only confirms the presence of deep and insuperable foundations, creating internal conflicts in the Mamluk state.

De 677 a 686, o papa João III governou a Igreja Copta; tratou-se de um período em que se ajustava um modus vivendi entre os árabes muçulmanos, que haviam entrado como conquistadores no Egito pouco antes, e os cristãos autóctones, divididos de modo então quase inconciliável entre coptas/miafisitas e melquitas/calcedônicos. A consideração de dois (des)encontros entre esse líder religioso e o emir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz evidencia a complexidade da conjuntura do estágio inicial da ocupação muçulmana do Vale do Nilo.

History is evident time people have fought for their country's heritage and also rights.

Many dictators have come with hunger for power. Globally, including western world has been involved in overthrowing these dictators but it has worked backwards till common citizens have taken issues at their hands leading to civil rights movement and revolutions. Do we want revolutions? Answer is no.

Power is not bad if used for betterment of society.  World has witnessed many imperialist  , to name a few, Adolf Hitler, Stalin,  Saddam Hussein, Col. Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Sisi , Putin, Assad and now newly feared possible Donald Trump, who had hunger for power and it led to their destruction of global society physically or economically. 

Once, Cairo, Egypt for favorites of tourists and pictured in western "James Bond Movies" . Times have changed. Hopefully people of Egypt can find a way out of Sisi, without interference and influence of another dictator or western ideology. Egypt can be Egypt again with bustling tourism and center of the world.

Religion should be kept on the side and not to be mixed with politics. Neither should one race be considered superior over another.