Project description
Local voices and imperial power in early Medieval Egypt
The Aphrodito archive has remained largely unknown for over a century. Originating in a small Middle-Egyptian town, the archive offers a rare glimpse into early eighth-century life under the Umayyad Caliphate. It is a mix of Arabic, Coptic, and Greek documents (from tax registers to correspondence between local and provincial authorities). In this context, the ERC-funded IMPERIAL ENCOUNTER project will produce full translations of the archive and use it to create a microhistory of Aphrodito. By combining documents from above and below, the project aims to illuminate the Caliphate’s strategies of rule, local responses, and the delicate balance between coercion and negotiation in early medieval empires.
Objective
Named ‘Aphrodito archive’ because it originates in that otherwise unremarkable Middle-Egyptian town, the most important papyrological archive of the early Caliphate contains the papers of an early-eighth-century district administrator, including correspondence with the provincial governor in the new Muslim capital Fustat, and with village heads in his district, as well as registers and accounts generally related to tax and resource extraction.
Known for over a century, the Aphrodito archive remains underexploited, largely because of its inaccessibility. Its three languages (Arabic, Coptic, Greek), difficult-to-access editions, and lack of translations have acted as a break to its study, and the partial nature of the existing translated texts (mainly those coming from above) has created a skewed view of its nature, which is much more organic and dialectical than has been allowed for. IMPERIAL ENCOUNTER will make this invaluable group of documents available to scholars by providing a full translation of the archive’s documents
IMPERIAL ENCOUNTER will also use this archive to produce a microhistory of the Aphrodito area and its engagement with the new empire. Containing documents from above and from below, the archive admirably illustrates the Caliphate’s conception of empire and its implementation strategy on the one hand, and local reception empire on the other. A team with the necessary linguistic skills will produce several microhistorical studies exploring some key questions for the Umayyad caliphate and the functioning of early medieval empires: the balance between coercion and negotiation, the role of archives in establishing power, the indigenous reception of empire.
In this key period of ostensible power display by the Umayyads, the documents found in rural Aphrodito mention such projects as the building of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus and demonstrate how they affected tiny villages in a different province, providing a textbook case of global microhistory.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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13284 Marseille
France
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