The Lost Archive

The Lost Archive
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 620
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691189529
ISBN-13 : 0691189528
Rating : 4/5 (528 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Lost Archive by : Marina Rustow

Download or read book The Lost Archive written by Marina Rustow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Related Books

The Lost Archive
Language: en
Pages: 620
Authors: Marina Rustow
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-01-14 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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 pl
Lost Children Archive
Language: en
Pages: 406
Authors: Valeria Luiselli
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-02-04 - Publisher: Vintage

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “An epic road trip [that also] captures the unruly intimacies of marriage and parenthood ... This is a novel that
The Lost Archive
Language: en
Pages: 620
Authors: Marina Rustow
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-01-14 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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 pl
The Archive of Loss
Language: en
Pages: 271
Authors: Maura Finkelstein
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-03-21 - Publisher: Duke University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mumbai's textile industry is commonly but incorrectly understood to be an extinct relic of the past. In The Archive of Loss Maura Finkelstein examines what it m
The Archive of the Forgotten
Language: en
Pages: 368
Authors: A. J. Hackwith
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-10-06 - Publisher: Penguin

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the second installment of this richly imagined fantasy adventure series, a new threat from within the Library could destroy those who depend upon it the most