Open Access Book: A Cosmopolitan City: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Old Cairo

A Cosmopolitan City: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Old Cairo

 

Edited by Tasha Vorderstrasse and Tanya Treptow

Download Terms of Use
This companion volume to the exhibit of the same name examines the multicultural city of Fustat, capital of medieval Egypt and predecessor to modern Cairo. It explores the interactions of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities within urban city life. These three communities practiced their own beliefs and enacted communal self-government, but they also intermingled on a daily basis and practiced shared traditions of life. Essays by leading scholars examine the different religions and languages found at Fustat, as well as cultural aspects of daily life such as food, industry, and education. The lavishly illustrated catalog presents a new analysis of the Oriental Institute’s collection of artifacts and textual materials from 7th through 12th-century Egypt. Highlights include documents from the Cairo Genizah (a document repository) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue as well as never-before-published artifacts from archaeological excavations conducted at Fustat by George Scanlon on behalf of the American Research Center in Egypt. The volume encourages discussion on the challenges of understanding religion through objects of daily life.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Reconstructing Everyday Life at Fustat. Tasha Vorderstrasse and Tanya Treptow
1. The Muslim Community of Fustat. Jonathan M. Bloom
2. The Oriental Institute Genizah Documents: A Glimpse of Jewish Life in Medieval Cairo. Michael G. Wechsler and Tasha Vorderstrasse
3. Christians of Fustat in the First Three Centuries of Islam: The Making of a New Society. Audrey Dridi
4. Fustat and Its Governor: Administering the Province. Arietta Papaconstantinou
5. Industries, Manufacturing, and Labor. Maya Schatzmiller
6. Linguistic Diversity at Fustat. Tasha Vorderstrasse
7. Childhood at Fustat: Archaeological and Textual Sources. Tasha Vorderstrasse
8. From Fustat to Palestine: Identifying Fatimid Jewelry Using the Genizah Documents from the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Ayala Lester
9. Fustat: The Town, Its Inhabitants, Their Food. Paulina Lewicka
10. Observations on Antiquities in Later Contexts. Vanessa Davies
11. Fustat to Cairo: An Essay on “Old Cairo.” Donald Whitcomb
12. A History of Excavations at Fustat. Tanya Treptow
Catalog
Concordance of Museum Registration Numbers
Checklist of the Exhibit
Bibliography

• Oriental Institute Museum Publications 38
• Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2015
• ISBN-13: 978-1-61491-026-8
• Pp. 232; 185 illustrations
• 9 x 11.5 inches, paperback
• $29.95

For an up to date list of all Oriental Institute publications available online see:

The Oriental Institute Open Access Publications

See Open Access Monograph Series: Oriental Institute Museum Publications (OIMP)
And see the Chronological Lists of OI Publications

Open Access Book: Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction

  Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction

Edited by: Alessandro Bausi (General editor), Pier Giorgio Borbone, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Paola Buzi, Jost Gippert, Caroline Macé, Marilena Maniaci, Zisis Melissakis, Laura E. Parodi, Witold Witakowski
Project editor: Eugenia Sokolinski
Printed by: Tredition, Hamburg
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1768-4
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1770-7
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1769-1

New Open Access Journal: Middle East Media and Book Reviews (MEMBR)

Middle East Media and Book Reviews (MEMBR) online is an open access e-journal designed to publish detailed reviews of recently or soon to be published media and books on the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The reviews are written by experts in their respective fields. MEMBR is edited by Professor M. Aman, PhD, EIC and M. J. Aman, MS, Assoc. Editor. Contact aman@uwm.edu or digestofmiddleeast@gmail.com with questions or comments.

See the Alphabetical List of Open Access Journals in Middle Eastern Studies

Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia

John Gordon Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia (1908 and 1915)

John Gordon Lorimer’s monumental Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia – often simply referred to as ‘Lorimer’ by many researchers - has been digitised and is now accessible for free through the Qatar Digital Library.

The Gazetteer’s first volume, the historical section, is divided into three parts:

·         Part I (IOR/L/PS/20/C91/1), the ‘Arabian portion’, covers the general history of the Persian Gulf, with histories of the Arab littoral, Central Arabia, Oman and Turkish Arabia (Iraq);

·         Part II (IOR/L/PS/20/C91/2), ‘the Persian section’, covers the history of the Persian littoral, including Arabistan and Makran. In addition, nineteen appendices cover subjects from pearl fisheries to the slave trade. Of note is Appendix P, ‘Cruise of His Excellency Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India’, an official account of the 1903 vice regal tour of Persian Gulf ports;

·         Part III (IOR/L/PS/20/C91/3) consists of twenty-one genealogical tables for the ruling families of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia.

The Gazetteer’s second volume (IOR/L/PS/20/C91/4) is the ‘Geographical and Statistical’ section and includes alphabetical entries for tribes, towns and regions, from ‘Abdalilah to Zubārah. It also contains fifty-six reproductions of photographs taken by British colonial officers, but also German explorer, Hermann Burchardt, and Raja Deen Dayal and Sons, official photographers to the Viceroy of India.

The Gazetteer includes two maps: a chart of pearl banks on the Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf included with the genealogical tables; and a large ‘Map of the Persian Gulf, ’Omān and Central Arabia’ (IOR/L/PS/20/C91/6) produced by Lieutenant Frederick Fraser Hunter in consultation with Lorimer.

Award for Outstanding Word in Digital Archaeology

AMIR's sister project AWOL: The Ancient World Online, received the Archaeological Institute of America's 2015 Award for Outstanding Word in Digital Archaeology.

Golhā Project

Golhā Project

"The Golhā ('Flowers of Persian Song and Music') comprise 1400 radio programs consisting of approximately 886 hours of programs broadcast over a period of 23 years - from 1956 through 1979.¹ These programs are made up of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, which is sung with musical accompaniment, interspersed with solo musical pieces. For the 23 years that these programs were broadcast, all the most eminent literary critics, famous radio announcers, singers, composers and musicians in Iran were invited to participate in them. The programs were not only exemplars of excellence in the sphere of music but highly ornate and refined examples of literary expression, making use of a repertoire of over two hundred classical and modern Persian poets, thus setting literary and musical standards that are still looked up to with admiration in Iran today and referred to as an encyclopedia of Persian music and poetry."

Registration is required to access advanced search and to view the program transcripts.