The Lost Archive
Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue
Published on 14. January 2020
Book
Hardback
624 pages
978-0-691-15647-7 (ISBN)
Description
A compelling look at the Fatimid caliphate's robust culture of documentation
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"Winner of the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize" "Winner of the Middle East Medievalists Book Prize" "Winner of the Haskins Medal, Medieval Academy of America" "Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Writing Based on Archival Material" "One of the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2020" "[T]hose seeking to ask important questions about the Jewish-Arab dynamic in medieval times will ... find much to glean [in this book]."---Dr. Stu Halpern, Jewish Book Council "A handsome volume with compelling illustrations . . . . This magisterial study is a must for anyone interested in the geniza but also for anyone considering how we relate to the texts of our predecessors and what we hope to leave to those who follow."---Elka Weber, Segula Jewish History Magazine "Ferociously thoroughly researched, beautifully written."---Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement "A pleasure to read. Rustow writes exceptionally well, approaching her material with an often informal, jocular tone, which makes all the talk of ligatures, tax receipts and bureaucracy go down more smoothly."---Christian Sahner, Times Literary Supplement "[Rustow's] book under review deserves to be perused and read for generations to come."---Ephraim Nissan, Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei "A tremendous service to the scientific community. Rustow enthralls her reader with herstyle and her art of telling intricate stories.
"---Frederic Bauden, Medieval Encounters "The Lost Archive's landmark contributions set new directions for Islamic History, and the book deserves a wider readership among historians interested in the state, archival practices, and orientalism."---Lev Weitz, American Historical Review
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
83 color + 17 b/w illus. 4 maps. 4c throughout
Dimensions
Height: 263 mm
Width: 192 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
1696 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-15647-7 (9780691156477)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€56.99
Available for download
Person
Marina Rustow is the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East and professor of Near Eastern studies and history at Princeton University. She is director of the Princeton Geniza Lab and a MacArthur fellow, and is the author of Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate.