Archives and the State in the Islamic East

• Published in: Annales : histoire, sciences sociales (French ed.) sciences sociales (French ed.), 2023-09, Vol.78 (3), p.483
• Main Author: Bramoulle, David
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• ISSN: 0395-2649

Although renowned for providing information on the Jewish communities of medieval Egypt, the documents known as the Cairo Genizah also contain numerous archives produced by the administration of the Fatimid Caliphate (910-1171) during its Egyptian phase (973-1171). Considered one of the most powerful caliphates of its time, the workings of this administration were previously known only through a few chancellery manuals written in the twelfth century and available in modern editions. These texts, composed by Fatimid administrators, concern either highly specific technical data that are difficult to generalize or attempts to reform an administration implicitly seen as flawed or at least improvable. Marina Rustow sets out to compare the various Fatimid documents found in the Cairo Genizah corpus with a selection of chancellery manuals to shed light on the caliphate's administrative procedures. Her goal is to highlight its modern and even what she calls "Weberian" nature, and in so doing to challenge the preconception that medieval caliphal administrations, in the hands of Eastern despots, were incapable of creating standardized administrative and archival procedures. This innovative approach leads Rustow to draw interesting and original conclusions that must nevertheless be nuanced.