Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections

This volume, originally published by Cambridge University Press and now reprinted by Archaeopress, contains editions of over 150 rare medieval Arabic legal and administrative documents found in the Cairo Genizah, the storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo) where hundreds of thousands of worn-out and unusable manuscripts were deposited over centuries by the Jewish community. The documents in Arabic script appear to have found their way into the storeroom largely by accident, but they constitute a unique source for the social and political history of medieval Egypt, especially with regard to the relations between Jews and Muslims. They offer a remarkable insight into the practice of law in medieval Islam and the administrative structure of government offices, mostly from the period of Fatimid rule in Egypt (10th–12th centuries). The documents include depositions, powers of attorney, contracts, petitions to viziers and caliphs (including the famed Saladin), chancery reports and accounts, and comprise extremely important primary source material for a number of disciplines, including Middle Eastern history, Jewish history, Arabic philology and the theory and practice of Islamic law.