This book covers new ground on the diffusion and transmission of geographical knowledge that occurred at critical junctures in the long history of the Silk Road. Much of twentieth-century scholarship on the Silk Road examined the ancient archaeological objects and medieval historical records found within each cultural area, while the consequences of long-distance interaction across Eurasia remained poorly studied. Here ample attention is given to the journeys that notions and objects undertook to transmit spatial values to other civilizations. In retracing the steps of four major circuits...

The dry climate of Egypt has preserved about 130,000 Arabic documents, mostly on papyrus and paper, covering the period from the 640s to 1517. Up to now, historical research has mostly relied on literary sources; yet, as in study of the history of the Ancient World and medieval Europe, using original documents will radically challenge what literary sources tell us about the Islamic world. The renaissance of Arabic papyrology has become obvious by the founding of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP) at the Cairo conference (2002), and by its subsequent conferences in Granada...

The Quṣayr Documents, one of the few Arabic archives unearthed in situ, shed new light on a lonely 13th-century outpost on the Red Sea shore where Egyptian donkey caravans met with ships coming from the Ḥidjāz and South Arabia. This is the publication of another twenty-five business letters and process slips from al-Quṣayr al-Qadīm. These unspectacular but elucidative documents follow clear rules in phraseology and in layout, as is shown by a multitude of close parallels with Arabic papyri and papers and with Judeo-Arabic Geniza documents. The book includes a short...

Qurʾān Quotations Preserved on Papyrus Documents, 7th-10th Centuries is the first book on the Qurʾān’s Sitz im Leben, i.e. on how the Qurʾān was quoted in Arabic original letters, legal deeds, and amulets. Qurʾān Quotations also serves as an in-depth exploration of the radiocarbon dating of documents and Qurʾānic manuscripts. Contributors: Ursula Bsees; Tobias J. Jocham; Andreas Kaplony; Michael Josef Marx, Daniel Potthast; Leonora Sonego; Eva Mira Youssef-Grob.

The renaissance of Arabic Papyrology has become obvious by the founding of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP) at the Cairo conference (2002), and by its subsequent conferences in Granada (2004), Alexandria (2006), Vienna (2009), Tunis/Carthage (2012), Munich (2014), and Berlin (2018). This volume collects papers given at the Munich conference, including editions of previously unpublished Coptic, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic documents, as well as historical studies based on documentary evidence from Achaemenid Bactria, Ancient South-Arabia, and Early Islamic, Fāṭimid and...

Documents open up another an approach complementary to the overwhelming richness of literary tradition as preserved in manuscripts. This volume combines studies on Greek, Sogdian and Arabic documents (letters, legal agreements, and amulets) with studies on Arabic and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts (poetry, science and divination).