Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. Technical Note xi
4. Introduction: Middle East History’s Archive Problem 1
5. I. Source Survival
6. 1. The Geniza: Blind Spots and Cataclysms 23
7. 2. The Storage Capacity of State Power 55
8. 3. The Corpus: Its Shape and Coherence 83
9. II. Chancery Practice
10. 4. Paper: The Search for a Sustainable Support 113
11. 5. Layout: Early Arabic Chancery Norms 138
12. 6. Script: The Impact of the Abbasid East 160
13. 7. Imperial Norms: The Abbasid Chancery 173
14. 8. The Fatimid Petition-and- Response Procedure 207
15. III. The Ecology of the Documents
16. 9. Supply: A Proliferation of Decrees 247
17. 10. Administrative Manuals and Nonmanuals 274
18. 11. The Source: The Chancery 296
19. 12. Copying, Storage, and Dissemination 319
20. 13. The Probative Value of Documents: Archiving and Registration 343
21. Appendix to Chapter 13: Fatimid ʿAlāʾim and Registration Marks 368
22. IV. The Problem of Archives
23. 14. The Rotulus as an Instrument of Performance 381
24. 15. The Ontological Status of the Decree 402
25. 16. Archives, Documents, and the Persistence of “Despotism” 424
26. Notes 451
27. Acknowledgments 529
28. Bibliography 535
29. Subject Index 577
30. Index of Manuscripts with Shelfmarks 589
31. Photo Credits and Permissions 597