Arabic papyrology seeks to publish documents, scattered in the
collections of East and West, that often illuminate the daily life of
simple people forgotten by narrative sources. Brought to light by
official or clandestine excavations, these documents need to be
patiently deciphered and commented at length. Yusuf Ragib, papyrologist
of renown, edits, translates and comments here eight documents on paper
and parchment written in the eleventh century in an obscure village in
southern Fayyoum. Discovered in the late nineteenth century, six of
these documents found their way to London and two to Berlin. The first
five belong to the archives of a Muslim family, the Banu Barmuda; the
last three are marriage contracts, one dissolved two years after its
conclusion. The most important contract, which happens to be the largest
Arabic document on parchment known to date, reveals the opulence of a
Bedouin emir who imposed a paid protection on the villagers. The year in
which Caliph al-Mustansir survived in his palace a famine that would not
end, the emir offered his wife a rich dowry while promising many more
sumptuous presents.
