Yossef Rapoport and Ido Shahar (eds), The Villages of the Fayyum: A Thirteenth-Century Register of Rural, Islamic Egypt (Brepols, 2018); and the companion monograph by Yossef Rapoport, Rural Economy and Tribal Society in Islamic Egypt: A Study of al-Nābulusī’s Villages of the Fayyum (Brepols, 2018).
Dear Colleagues,
I am very pleased to announce the publication of Yossef Rapoport and Ido Shahar (eds), The Villages of the Fayyum: A Thirteenth-Century Register of Rural, Islamic Egypt (Brepols, 2018); and the companion monograph by Yossef Rapoport, Rural Economy and Tribal Society in Islamic Egypt: A Study of al-Nābulusī’s Villages of the Fayyum (Brepols, 2018). Both volumes are published as part of Brepols’ The Medieval Countryside series.
The Villages of the Fayyum: A Thirteenth-Century Register of Rural, Islamic Egypt (The Medieval Countryside 18) offers the first academic edition and translation of a first-hand account of the Egyptian countryside, offering a key insight into the rural economy of medieval Islam. Dating from the middle of the thirteenth century, Abū ‘Uthmān al-Nābulusī’s Villages of the Fayyum is as close as we get to the tax registers of any rural province in the medieval Islamic world. Like the Domesday Book of medieval England, al-Nābulusī’s work provides a wealth of fiscal and social detail for each village. It is a unique, comprehensive snap-shot of one rural society at one, significant, point in its history, and an insight into the way of life of the majority of the population in the medieval Islamic world. By opening up this key source to scholars, it will be an indispensable resource for historians of Egypt, of administration and rural life in the Middle East more generally.
Rural Economy and Tribal Society in Islamic Egypt: A Study of al-Nābulusī’s Villages of the Fayyum (The Medieval Countryside 19) utilises quantitative research methods and spatial GIS analysis to provide a rich account of the rural economy of the medieval Fayyum, the tribal organization of the village communities, and their rights and duties in relation to the military landholders. It also draws on the rich documentary evidence of the Fayyum, which stretches back to the Greco-Roman and early Islamic periods, to trace the transformation of the Fayyum into a Muslim-majority and Arab province. This volume makes a major contribution to the history of Islamic Egypt, its rural economy, and to our understanding of taxation and administration under the Ayyubids. Most importantly, its argument for the metamorphosis of the Coptic peasantry into Muslim and tribal Arab society has profound implications for Middle Eastern history in general, and challenges our modern concept of Arab identity.
Brepols are making a special discount offer of € 140 (EXC. VAT) for the set of both books. This offer is valid until 30 November 2018. The discount is available on the Special Offers section of Brepols Publishers website.
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503542775-1