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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.

Islam --- History as a science --- Archivistics --- History of Africa --- anno 900-999 --- anno 1000-1099 --- anno 1100-1199 --- Cairo --- Cairo Genizah. --- Fatimites --- Fatimites. --- Manuscripts, Arabic. --- Schriftlichkeit. --- History --- Sources. --- History. --- Fatimiden, --- 647-1517. --- Africa, North --- North Africa. --- Archival resources. --- Sources --- Manuscrits de la Géniza du Caire --- Fāṭimides. --- Le Caire (Égypte) --- Égypte --- Synagogue Ben Ezra.

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Authority --- Jewish diaspora --- Jews --- Judaism --- Tradition (Judaism) --- Religious aspects --- Study and teaching

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This book deals with various manifestations of charity or giving in the contexts of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim societies in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. Monotheistic charity and giving display many common features. These underlying similarities reflect a commonly shared view about God and his relations to mankind and what humans owe to God and expect from him. Nevertheless, the fact that the emphasis is placed on similarities does not mean that the uniqueness of the concepts of charity and giving in the three monotheistic religions is denied. The contributors of the book deal with such heterogeneous topics like the language of social justice in early Christian homilies as well as charity and pious endowments in medieval Syria, Egypt and al-Andalus during the 11th-15th centuries. This wide range of approaches distinguish the book from other works on charity and giving in monotheistic religions.

Generosity. --- Generosity --- Monotheism. --- Charity. --- Alms and almsgiving --- Conduct of life --- Pantheism --- Religion --- Theism --- Trinity --- Polytheism --- Giving --- Magnanimity --- Religious aspects. --- Charity, Christian. --- Charity, Jewish. --- Charity, Muslim. --- Charity, medieval and ancient. --- Giving.

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