The way of the peasant

1984 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brett
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Source Materials

The book under review here is to be compared with the volume published over ten years ago under the editorship of Michael Cook, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East (London, 1970). It covers essentially the same subject over the same period of time in the same fashion, by a series of papers contributed to a major international conference. It differs first of all in the length of time it has taken to produce the work, seven years from the original conference at Princeton in 1974, compared with three from the conference at S.O.A.S. in 1967 to the publication of the earlier collection. It is in fact much longer, with more space and time allowed to the contributors to rewrite their papers and annotate them, in great and often discursive detail. The editor is to be complimented on the very high standard of the production of the mammoth tome which results. The weight is heavily on the countryside and the agricultural economy; neither trade, nor industry, nor urban life make much of an appearance except as their adjuncts. Only historical demography (4 articles) stands in any way as a separate subject. More usual is the emphasis upon Egypt, which once again receives the greatest attention, in ten or eleven out of the total twenty-four contributions. Atypical as the Nile valley may seem, its source materials continue to influence the pattern of research in the much wider field of the book's title. Elsewhere it is something of a shock to find, in the papers of Morony on seventh-century Iraq, Talbi on ninth-century Ifrīqiya, Burns on fourteenth-century Valencia, and Rafeq on eighteenth-century Syria, the wealth of detail that comes from a legal literature, an archive or court records, and to realize how few and far between such studies are outside Egypt.

Pre-diaspora Arabic

Diachronica ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Owens
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Arabic

Arabic dialects, the native spoken Arabic of about 250 million people, are spread over an immense, contiguous geographical area from Iran to Lake Chad, from Morocco to Yemen. Corresponding to this geographical spread is considerable linguistic diversity. An explanation for this diversity has proved elusive. The existence of variants found either in the modern dialects or in the Classical literature (or both), which are not self-evidently derivable from a normalized Classical Arabic (largely standardized by the ninth century), argues for a more diverse set of inputs into the Arabic which spread outwards from the Arabian Peninsula beginning in the seventh century. I elucidate this problem by comparing four varieties of Arabic located in widely separated areas and settled at different times. To account for the internal diversity of the areas compared, a dataset is established with 49 phonological and morphological features, which, using simple statistical procedures, permits a normalized comparison of the varieties. From this set of variables, two specific linguistic features are discussed in detail and reconstructions proposed, which place their origins in a pre-diaspora variety. I conclude that the Arabic which preceded the Arabic diaspora of the seventh century was considerably more diverse than interpretations of the history of Arabic traditionally allow for. Additional information and data: http://german.lss.wisc.edu/Diachronica/Owens/pdfs.htm

SARAH D. SHIELDS, Mosul before Iraq: Like Bees Making Five-sided Cells, SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000). Pp. 292. $68.50 cloth, $22.95 paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-631
Author(s):  
William Ochsenwald
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Economic History ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
State University ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Despite the long-standing political and practical difficulties of doing research about Iraq, the scholarly world has recently witnessed the publication of several outstanding historical works on the Ottoman period. Hala Fattah and Dina Rizk Khoury in particular have set in their books a high standard of thorough research, careful analysis, and thoughtful conclusions. Now, in this long-awaited book, Sarah Shields lives up to her predecessors' standard by making her own excellent contribution to the study of Ottoman Iraq.

The Primary History of Armenia: An Examination of the Validity of an Immemorially Transmitted Historical Tradition

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Robert H. Hewson
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Alexander The Great ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
Historical Memories

Few peoples of the Middle East have produced as many historical works as the Armenians: their historiography dates back at least to the fifth century A.D. While most medieval Armenian historians have concerned themselves with contemporary history and the immediate past, there have been some who have attempted to trace Armenian history from the earliest times. It is to two of these, Pseudo-Sebeos and Pseudo-Moses of Khoren, that we owe the survival of the body of historical memories now generally referred to as the Primary History of Armenia.This Primary History has come to us in two redactions, a long and a short. The shorter version is attributed to the earliest known Armenian historian, Agathangelos (fourth century A.D.?) and is presented in the opening section of a seventh-century work ascribed-probably wrongly-to a certain bishop named Sebeos. The longer version, much expanded and edited, is contained in Book One of the compilation of Armenian antiquities known as the History of Armenia by Pseudo-Moses of Khoren. While the date of this work has been much disputed, it appears now to be a product of the late eighth or early ninth century.According to Pseudo-Sebeos the short redaction of the Primary History was a work originally written by Agathangelos, secretary to Tiridates HI (298–330), the first Christian king of Armenia, and was based on information contained in a book written by a certain Marab the Philosopher from Mtsurn, a town in western Armenia. Pseudo-Moses, on the other hand, claims that the parallel material in his history (I. 9–32 and II. 1–9) is an extract by Marabas Katiba from a Greek translation of a Chaldean history of Armenia made by order of Alexander the Great.

Prices in Mecca During the Mamluk Period

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Mortel
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Terra Incognita ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Mamluk Period ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Source Materials

AbstractThe political, social and economic history of western Arabia during the medieval period still remains terra incognita for the great majority of Islamicists, in spite of the intrinsic importance of the subject and the existence of a corpus of first-rate source materials. The goal of this article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the economic history of Mecca through a detailed study of the available information regarding the prices of cereal grains and other foodstuffs there during the Mamluk period. So that the maximum advantage may be derived from the discussion, it will be preceeded by a short outline of the political history of Mecca during Mamluk times, as well as the salient features of its economy.

Introduction

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dora P. Crouch
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Design History ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Hanseatic League ◽  
Geological Information ◽  
History Of

Cities are a constant interplay between tangible and intangible, visible and invisible factors. Long-lived cities can provide data to compensate for the brevity of our modern urban experience (Croce 1985). To overcome these gaps in research, just beginning to close, the city is a most useful unit of study. Ancient cities can serve as four-dimensional models (length, width, height, and time) of how humans survived in their ecological niches. Yet comparative studies of groups of cities—such as Rorig’s (1967) of German medieval trading cities of the Hanseatic League, Andrews’s (1975) of the urban design history of Maya cities, and Hohenberg and Lee’s (1985) of the economic history of European cities—ignore the geological setting. The setting of our study is the Mediterranean periphery where cities are united by their Greco-Roman historical and cultural relationships. From the twenty-five Greco-Roman sites studied in Water Management in Ancient Greek Cities, we have selected for further study 10 sites with sufficient geological information to form a basis of comparison. Our comparisons are based on the physical aspects—both form and function—of the local area, not the particular object. There are exciting possibilities, both intellectual and practical, in such an approach. Until recently, ancient Mediterranean cities have been investigated mainly by ancient historians and classical archaeologists. Cities, however, are so complex as to require every possible sort of investigation. Because each model and methodology leaves out too much, the use of a single model from one discipline, whether archaeological, mathematical, engineering, or historic, has limited usefulness. The documents of the classicists and the physical remains located by archaeologists seem to an urban historian like myself to be useful but incomplete sources that take for granted the geographical base, assume a past social organization, and may ignore the technological and scientific aspects of ancient urban life. As classicist M. H. Jameson (1990) has written, “The surviving literature from Classical Greece sheds light only incidentally on practical matters such as patterns of settlement and domestic architecture . . . [yet] conceptions drawn from literature, sometimes with dubious justification, continue to prevail.”

scholarly journals New Issues in British Business History

1983 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Hannah
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Business History ◽  
High Quality ◽  
International Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of

Business history has been a thriving academic industry in Britain for the last three decades. Following some pioneering case studies of Industrial Revolution entrepreneurs by the early giants of the discipline of economic history, the postwar generation has produced a series of high quality company histories. The first of these, published in 1954, was Charles Wilson's history of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, formed by a merger of Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie in 1929. Wilson's book set the pattern for a high standard of scholarship, resting on complete freedom of access to company archives, and for publication based on scholarly independence rather than the public relations needs of the commissioning organization. If some of its terms of reference now seem dated, and its framework of analysis somewhat unscientific, then that is an indication of the incentive Wilson provided for others to do better, particularly in the use of economic theory and of comparative analysis setting firms in their industrial or international context.

Strobilos and Related Sites

1988 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 147-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Foss
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
Byzantine Period

In the Byzantine period, urban life in Anatolia underwent a decay in which ancient cities shrank behind reduced circuits of walls or withdrew to the fortified hilltops whence they had descended in the Hellenistic age. Even the greatest city of the empire, Constantinople, saw a drastic diminution of population and resources, abandonment of its ancient public works and services, and consequent transformation from a classical to a medieval city. These changes began with the devastating invasions of Persians and Arabs in the seventh century. Sources reveal little about Anatolia between the early seventh and mid-ninth century, a true dark age, but the evidence of archaeology often makes it possible to visualize conditions at the time.The Byzantines, whose empire long survived these troubles, generally occupied existing sites in Asia Minor where their ruins are superimposed on those of the Romans or earlier cultures. In only a few instances, usually occasioned by the needs of defence or of a militarized administration, were new sites founded. Although the Dark Ages were not a propitious time for urban development, some new towns did come into existence or prominence. Few of them have been studied. Strobilos on the Carian coast, therefore, is of some potential interest as an example of a Byzantine town which first appears in the historical record in the eighth century, and whose remains have been preserved.

Bald's Leechbook and the Physica Plinii

1992 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 87-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Adams ◽  
Marilyn Deegan
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Source Materials

The study of the sources of the Anglo-Saxon medical texts began more than a hundred years ago with T.O. Cockayne's monumental edition of most of the medical, magical and herbal material extant in Old English. Cockayne demonstrated that the most significant text in this corpus, the late ninth-century compilation known as Bald's Leechbook, drew on an impressive range of Latin source materials. Recent work by C.H. Talbot and M.L. Cameron has further extended our knowledge of the classical texts which underlie the Leechbook. Among the significant sources is the text known as the Physica Plinii. Although the Physica survives in several recensions, there has as yet been no systematic study of the relationship between these recensions and the version of the Latin text used by the Old English compiler. The present article investigates Bald's Leechbook as a witness to the history of the Physica Plinii, and demonstrates the complexity of the transmission of the latter work.

Lifting in early Greek Architecture

1974 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
History Of Technology ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Mechanical Advantage ◽  
Greek Architecture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple

In the standard handbooks on the techniques of Greek architecture, the problem of lifting heavy architectural members is considered mainly in terms of the various cranes and hoists based on compound pulley systems which are described by Vitruvius and Hero of Alexandria. It is assumed that the same basic method was employed also in the Archaic period, and that the use of an earth ramp by Chersiphron to raise the architraves of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos in the mid-sixth century was exceptional. If this is true, it is a matter of some interest in the history of technology. The simple pulley, used not to gain mechanical advantage but just to change the direction of pull, is first known from an Assyrian relief of the ninth century B.C., and may well have been known to the Greeks before they began to build in megalithic masonry in the late seventh century B.C.; but the earliest indisputable evidence for a knowledge of compound pulley systems is in the Mechanical Problems attributed to Aristotle, but more probably written by a member of his school in the early third century B.C. This is a theoretical discussion of a system which was already used by builders, but it is not so certain that practice preceded theory by three centuries or more. It is therefore worth looking again at the evidence for the use of cranes, hoists and pulleys in early Greek building.

A Tale of Two Narrators: Some Historical, Geographical and Cultural Considerations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livnat Holtzman
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
History Of

This chapter offers a combined literary-historical approach to ḥadīth al-ruʾya (‘the ḥadīth of the beatific vision’). The chapter examines the alleged origins of this ḥadīth in seventh century Medina, and follows the circulation of this text until it became one of the foremost iconic texts of Islamic traditionalism. The chapter examines two versions of ḥadīth al-ruʾya attributed to the Prophet’s companions, Jarir al-Bajali and Abu Razin al-ʿUqayli, and highlights the role of Abu Razin and Jarir’s family members and tribesmen in shaping the two narratives of ḥadīth al-ruʼya. Although the two narratives were almost identical, Jarir’s narrative was admitted into the traditionalistic canon, while Abu Razin’s narrative was cherished only by a few traditionalists. This chapter considers the various factors that led to the iconisation of Jarir’s narrative, and identifies the miḥna, the formative event of Islamic traditionalism that occurred in ninth century Baghdad, as the turning point in the history of this text. During the miḥna, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) was harshly interrogated by the caliph’s vizier about his belief in the beatific vision. By citing Jarir’s narrative as the ultimate textual evidence of his belief, Ibn Hanbal contributed to this text’s iconisation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document