Volume 102, Issue 2

This study examines two Qurʾānic concepts expressed through the root kh-t-m : “the seal of the prophets” and disbelievers “having seals on their hearts and hearing” in light of pre-Islamic Christian and particularly Syriac literature. It suggests that both concepts entered the Qurʾān via the Syriac cognate of kh-t-m , ḥ-t-m , albeit in different ways: whereas Syriac interpretations of Isaiah 8:16, Daniel 9:24, Matthew 5:17–18, and Luke 24:44, found in the Diatessaron, the Peshitta, and works of Syriac theologians, informed the Qurʾānic conception of “the seal of the prophets,” it was the Syro-Hexapla that inspired the concept of disbelievers being sealed by adopting a minority rendering of Isaiah 8:16 from the Septuagint. The study then proposes that the Qurʾānic notion of “sealing the prophets” has a legal dimension, and that the Qurʾān positions Muḥammad as the great lawgiver prophet, ending the line of the prophets who are the recipients of God’s covenants and “laws.” Muḥammad taking on such a role provides him a position comparable to Jesus’s role in the Syriac texts. Moreover, the study demonstrates that discussion of disbelievers “having seals on their hearts and hearing” with the Biblical precursor of disbelievers being sealed fits neatly into the broader context of the Qurʾān, when several phrases with Biblical antecedents become a part of the Qurʾānic discourse.

This essay starts from a somewhat simple question: What was the ummah of Muḥammad? It has become commonplace in the historiography of early Islam to understand the ummah of Muḥammad as primarily the “religious community” that he founded – “a community of believers” in modern scholarly parlance. But this received scholarly wisdom sits ill at ease with the Qurʾān, which more often asserts that its messenger was called from, and sent to, an ummah that pre-existed his mission. This ummah is never given an explicit name in the Qurʾān, but the Qurʾān does convey several interesting facts about it: most notably, this ummah speaks the same language as the messenger, the Arabic language. May one conclude, therefore, that the ummah to which the messenger was initially sent is merely the Arabs? Many early authors of the first and second Islamic centuries certainly do follow this line of reasoning, but are they correct or mistaken? This essay cross-examines their reasoning, as well as the warrant ostensibly behind it, and follows the development of the conviction that Arabs were the ummah of Muḥammad into its full bloom in the Arabic epistolography of the Umayyad period.

This article discusses the evolving formats and overall output associated with the correspondence of the governors of Islamic Egypt throughout the Umayyad period. It further presents the edition of a fragmentary letter by the governor al-Ḥurr b. Yūsuf to the ṣāḥib aš-šurṭa Ḥafṣ b. al-Walīd. The papyrus is one of the rare examples of Umayyad gubernatorial correspondence dated after the first quarter of the 8th century and one of the very few testimonies of letter exchange between the highest offices of the early Islamic Arab-Muslim provincial administration.

This article presents a preliminary description and analysis of four tax registers that form the core of a larger cluster of Arabic documents from the 9th– and 10th–century Fayyūm. The cluster was discovered in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Berlin during efforts to identify document clusters within a corpus of 1,000 unpublished documents. The four tax registers mention common names and villages, indicating they were created by a local tax administration office in the southern Fayyūm. Notably, two extensive tax ledgers (P.Berl.inv. 15070; P.Berl.inv. 15069), together housing the names of approximately 400 individual taxpayers from the villages of Shidmūh, Miqrān, and possibly a third village, are of particular interest. Both ledgers emphasize the completion of payments, suggesting they reflect the lowest stage of a tax collection cycle. The taxpayers are identified in various ways, typically by name ( ism) and the father’s name ( nasab) or the name of the first-born son ( kunya) , but also by profession, origin, or even nickname. The third and fourth tax registers (P.Berl.inv. 15073; P.Berl.inv. 15081) presented here exhibit a different layout and structure, representing a later administrative step. Collectively, this cluster offers promising opportunities for investigating village social structures and various forms of kinship.

The port of al-Ṭūr underwent major expansion in the late fourteenth century, though it was intermittently active since the late thirteenth century. Its rise coincided with the decline of nearby al-Rāyah, likely due to silting. Under the Mamlūks, especially during Barsbāy’s reign, al-Ṭūr became a key hub for trade, pilgrimage, and military use. Documentary evidence suggests year-round activity from the mid-15th century onward. Archival records also highlight the role of the local Christian community and St. Catherine’s Monastery in the port’s operations.

The study outlined here responds to a two-fold historiographical observation. First, wood has mainly been studied, both recently and secondarily, by historians interested in the seasonal administration of warfare. This article takes a broader look at the use of wood as a major resource in both imperial capitals and Ottoman provinces. The documentation available in the Ottoman archives of the Presidency of the Turkish Republic allows us to cross-reference fiscal and logistical aspects over different time periods (weekly, monthly, or yearly). Second, wood has primarily been studied from the perspective of timber and lumber intended for State factories. This article examines the importance of firewood in terms of its impact on local economies and the distribution of the tax burden between suppliers and producers. Based on the systematic exploitation of the registers and receipts produced by the Ottoman finance department, the investigation addresses four related topics: the place of wood in the field of tax collection and exemptions, the provisioning methods adopted by the authorities, the apportions system within administrative units, and revenue assessment methods for firewood provisioning. Finally, the results point to two avenues of development for Ottoman studies, namely a possible link between two independently forged paradigms (economic mind and fiscal State) and a connection with two historiographies that are themselves linked (Byzantium and Rome).