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“Al-Raqqa, Namely Kalne” – Testimonies from the Cairo Geniza

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Published/Copyright: October 11, 2022
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Der Islam
From the journal Der Islam Volume 99 Issue 2

Abstract

The article concerns the medieval history of the strategic city al-Raqqa, situated at the junction of the Balīkh and Euphrates Rivers. After an overview of the city’s middle Islamic history, gathered from Islamic textual sources and archaeological finds, it focuses on the city’s history during the fifth/eleventh century, which is also its most obscure period, on which the textual sources are silent and archaeological finds are scanty. Eleventh century al Raqqa is revealed through several documents from the Cairo Geniza, which tell the story of the al- Lādhiqī family, whose members occupied leadership positions in the local Jewish community and around. Through the saga of the al-Lādhiqīs, some light is shed on the dimorphic rule exercised by the Bedouin tribe of Banū Numayr on the city and on the local Jewish community and the ways it integrated in the city and in the wider network of Jewish communities.

Keywords: al-Raqqa; Cairo Geniza; Fatimids; Banū Numayr; Manīʿ ibn Shabīb; the al-Lādhiqī family
Online erschienen: 2022-10-11
Erschienen im Druck: 2022-10-06

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  1. Titelseiten
  2. Heinz Gaube (1940–2022)
  3. Articles
  4. Circumcision in Early Islam
  5. Le dossier du Patrice Grégoire dans les sources arabes
  6. Vers une nouvelle méthode de datation du hadith: les invocations à Dieu dans les inscriptions épigraphiques et dans la sunna
  7. Ṣalāt al-Niṣf min Rajab: A Shīʿī Tradition Preserved on Paper
  8. “Al-Raqqa, Namely Kalne” – Testimonies from the Cairo Geniza
  9. “Personal Opinion” in Qurʾānic Exegesis: Medieval Debates and Interpretations of al-Tafsīr bi-l-Raʾy
  10. Zinā and Gender (In)Equality in Ismāʿīlī Druze Law
  11. The Conquests of Adrianople by the Turks: Reflections on the Ottoman Expansion in Thrace
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  14. Angelika Brodersen, Zwischen Māturīdīya und Ašʿarīya. Abū Šakūr as-Sālimī und sein Tamhīd fī bayān at-tauḥīd, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2018, 107 S. deutsch, 400 S. arabisch, (Islamic Theory and Thought 14), ISBN 978-1-4632-3941-1.
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  16. Gottfried Hagen and Robert Dankoff, eds., An Ottoman Cosmography: Translation of Cihānnümā by Kātib Çelebi. Translated by Ferenc Csirkés, John Curry, and Gary Leiser. Handbook of Oriental Studies, volume 142. Leiden: Brill, 2022. Pp. xiv + 694, 46 plates and 98 figures, ISBN: 978-9004441323.
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  19. Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian C. Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn and Luke Yarbrough, eds., Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook, Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020, xxi + 355 pp. (including timelines, maps and indices), ISBN: 978-0-520-29673-2.
  20. Andreas Kaplony and Daniel Potthast, eds., From Qom to Barcelona. Aramaic, South Arabian, Coptic, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic Documents. Edited by, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021, XIX + 227 p. + 37 Abb., Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts 178. ISBN 978-90-04-44384-6.
  21. Christopher Melchert, Before Sufism: Early Islamic Renunciant Piety. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 240 pages, ISBN hardcover: 9783110616514, ISBN e-book: 9783110617962.
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https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2022-0022
Keywords for this article
al-Raqqa; Cairo Geniza; Fatimids; Banū Numayr; Manīʿ ibn Shabīb; the al-Lādhiqī family

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Heinz Gaube (1940–2022)
  3. Articles
  4. Circumcision in Early Islam
  5. Le dossier du Patrice Grégoire dans les sources arabes
  6. Vers une nouvelle méthode de datation du hadith: les invocations à Dieu dans les inscriptions épigraphiques et dans la sunna
  7. Ṣalāt al-Niṣf min Rajab: A Shīʿī Tradition Preserved on Paper
  8. “Al-Raqqa, Namely Kalne” – Testimonies from the Cairo Geniza
  9. “Personal Opinion” in Qurʾānic Exegesis: Medieval Debates and Interpretations of al-Tafsīr bi-l-Raʾy
  10. Zinā and Gender (In)Equality in Ismāʿīlī Druze Law
  11. The Conquests of Adrianople by the Turks: Reflections on the Ottoman Expansion in Thrace
  12. Reviews
  13. Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology and Documentary Studies on the Mediterranean and the Islamicate World”
  14. Angelika Brodersen, Zwischen Māturīdīya und Ašʿarīya. Abū Šakūr as-Sālimī und sein Tamhīd fī bayān at-tauḥīd, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2018, 107 S. deutsch, 400 S. arabisch, (Islamic Theory and Thought 14), ISBN 978-1-4632-3941-1.
  15. Stephen Frederic Dale, The Orange Trees of Marrakesh. Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Man, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 2015, xv + 383 pp., ISBN 978-0-674-96765-6.
  16. Gottfried Hagen and Robert Dankoff, eds., An Ottoman Cosmography: Translation of Cihānnümā by Kātib Çelebi. Translated by Ferenc Csirkés, John Curry, and Gary Leiser. Handbook of Oriental Studies, volume 142. Leiden: Brill, 2022. Pp. xiv + 694, 46 plates and 98 figures, ISBN: 978-9004441323.
  17. Alfred Hiatt, ed., Cartography between Christian Europe and the Arabic-Islamic World, 1100–1500: Divergent Traditions, Leiden: Brill, 2021, xiv + 235 pp., 45 color figures, ISBN: 978-9004444911.
  18. Douglas A. Howard, Das Osmanische Reich 1300–1924. Darmstadt: Theis, 2018, 480 S., zahlr. Karten und Abbildungen. ISBN 978-3-8062-3703-0.
  19. Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian C. Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn and Luke Yarbrough, eds., Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook, Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020, xxi + 355 pp. (including timelines, maps and indices), ISBN: 978-0-520-29673-2.
  20. Andreas Kaplony and Daniel Potthast, eds., From Qom to Barcelona. Aramaic, South Arabian, Coptic, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic Documents. Edited by, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021, XIX + 227 p. + 37 Abb., Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts 178. ISBN 978-90-04-44384-6.
  21. Christopher Melchert, Before Sufism: Early Islamic Renunciant Piety. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 240 pages, ISBN hardcover: 9783110616514, ISBN e-book: 9783110617962.
  22. Robert Mihajlovski, The Religious and Cultural Landscape of Ottoman Manastır. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Section One: The Near and Middle East, vol. 153, Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2021, 309 Seiten, ISBN 978-90-04-46525-1 (hardback).
  23. Amir Theilhaber, Friedrich Rosen. Orientalist Scholarship and International Politics, München: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2020, 627 pp., ISBN 978-3-11-063925-4 (hardback).
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