P.Cair.Arab III 167: A Discussion of the Akhmīm Declaration
Multilingual documents usually are of special historical interest. Their value for the study of the linguistic situation—multilingualism, linguistic inference and the process of arabicisation—in early Islamic Egypt has recently been considered in a number of studies.1 P.Cair.Arab iii 167, a trilingual declaration, written in Coptic, Greek and Arabic, is an exceptionally rich example of such documents. In the present paper, I shall bemainly concernedwith its administrative contents and what it reveals about how the new Arab administration reacted to complaints presented against certain irregularities committed in connection with the tax collection in Akhmīm and its surrounding area. Early Arab rule tended to be practical and keen to avoid any interruption in the smooth running of the administration. It was therefore consistent with the framework of their polity to allow—for at least a century—the perpetuation of two earlier practices: the Byzantine taxation system, and the use of the Greek and Coptic languages in local administration.With regard to taxation, Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam states that “ʿAmr agreed to levy the same amount of taxes as the Rūm (i.e. Byzantines).”2 Consequently, the new Arab administration in Egypt had to deal with the same causes of discontent that had troubled the Romans and the Byzantines before them. Although fiscal pressure had often caused Egypt’s tax-payers to rise in revolt already in the pre-Islamic period, the end of the first/seventh and first half of the second/eighth centuries especially saw tension rising, with more conflicts
Chronological Systems of Byzantine Egypt
Egypt is the richest source of primary documents for the economy, society and everyday life of the late antique Mediterranean world. Its thousands of papyri provide insight into aspects and topics ignored by ancient authors. This handbook is an indispensable tool in navigating these documents, which use a host of complex systems to date legal transactions. Extensive tables and lists help the reader understand the use of consulates, the indiction cycle, eras, and dates by imperial reigns. Other formal aspects of the documents, including Christian invocations and sworn oaths, are also fully covered.
Minority Languages and Bilingualism: Case Studies in Maintenance and Shift
This book deals with the past, present, and possible future of minority languages. It begins with a number of relevant concepts in macro-sociolinguistics as a background for analyzing the problems associated with minority languages. The fundamental question posed throughout is whether these minority languages will continue to exist, caught as they are in the strong currents of national and international development. A history of the society and language is given for each area. Comparisons are made in quantitative terms, in addition to interpretations based on the spontaneous remarks of interviewees. Beyond the statistical comparisons between samples and the differences of age, gender, and social class, the attitudes of the interviewees toward their respective minority language make the reader aware of the emotional reactions to questions of ethnic and language identity. In the final chapter, language planning is discussed.