CHRISTIANSINEGYPT · Christian Communities in Early Islamic Egypt. The View from Inside
7РП — „Хора“ (Действия „Мария Кюри“)
- Период
- 2010-10-06 → 2013-04-05
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 215 599 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- MC-IEF
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Християнските общности в Египет между VII и X век се анализират чрез ежедневни документи за данъци, манастирски живот и езикови промени. Те помагат да се разбере как обществото е преминало от гръцки и коптски към арабски език и ислям.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Christian Communities in Early Islamic Egypt. The View from Inside
In 639, less than twenty years after the death of the prophet Muhammad, the raging conquest wave had brought the Arab Muslim armies to the borders of the Byzantine province of Egypt. Two years later Alexandria, bulwark of classical civilisation of Christian and Jewish Hellenistic learning fell and with it a new era began for the ancient country of Egypt. The project aimed to understand the transformation of Egypt from a Greek and Coptic speaking, Christian society into an Arabic speaking, Muslim one, between the seventh and tenth centuries, by observing the Islamic conquest from inside the Egyptian Christian communities through the documents that they produced. These texts were intended for daily use, and unlike literary texts, they were not written for an audience, they do not try to convince, and they are not polemical. In fact, they were not even meant to be used for a long period; their preservation is only due to the exceptionally dry climate of Egypt. Their historical value is therefore invaluable. The project was organised around three topics which are especially useful to understand the processes of the arabisation and islamisation of Egypt: taxation, evolution of monastic life, and linguistic changes. During the project, I published a number of new texts related to these topics as well as historical studies in which the historical significance of these texts was made clear. The researches allowed me to define in a more precise and up-to-date way the impact of the Arabic conquest of Egypt on the Christian populations refining ideas about economic, cultural and social sudden changes, the co-existence, competition, negotiation and mutual influence between the different communities after the arrival of the Arabs. The findings of this project can play a role in the continuing debates about interreligious relations both in the past and the present in Egypt.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
When the Muslims conquered the millennia-old civilisation of Egypt in the mid-7th century, theirs was the last in a long line of foreign conquests. And yet, unlike their predecessor invaders, whose impact tended to be superficial, Egypt under the Muslims was transformed into a thorough-going Muslim and Arabic state – which it remains to this day. What accounts for the remarkable integrative power of Islamic culture? This project aims to understand the transformation of the Egyptian society between the 7th and 10th centuries from a Christian, Greek- and Coptic-speaking milieu into an Arabic-speaking Muslim polity. It does so by examining contemporary Christian documents, as they are preserved in Coptic, Greek and Arabic papyri – documents that have been largely overlooked – to understand this process from within, thereby avoiding the biases inherent in narrative sources written long after the event. Leiden has unparalleled resources in this field. During my stay there I will undertake a study of the Arabic sources and integrate the archaeological evidence. My research will focus on three key topics: fiscal policy, the evolution of monasticism, and linguistic change. Through the taxation system I hope to understand Muslim strategies of state organisation and social control. By looking at monasticism I will explore how fiscal and doctrinal pressures affected the institutional framework of Egyptian religious life. The supersession of Greek and Coptic by Arabic will be analysed to uncover links between religious conversion and linguistic change. Through this kind of multidisciplinary approach, studying languages and disciplines which have not traditionally been studied together, I plan to improve our understanding of Christian-Muslim interaction and cross-cultural negotiation. The model this project aims to produce will, I believe, offer significant insights into the mechanisms that underlie religious-cultural confrontation and exchange which are no less relevant today.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN · LeidenКоординаторНидерландия
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз