Scribal Practices and the Social Construction of Knowledge: In Antiquity, Late antiquity and Medieval Islam
- 253 p., ill., map; 26 cm
- Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta; 266 0777-978X .
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Writing practices, people and materials in Egypt to the first millennium BC The construction of meaning on the cuneiform periphery Scribal tradition and the transmission of Syriac literature in Late Antiquity and Early Islam Arabic documents from the early Islamic period Scribal practice in the Jewish community of Medieval Egypt Scribes as scapegoats: language, identity, and power in Jahshiyārī's Book of Viziers and Scribes The Rabbinic concept of Holy Scriptures as sacred objects The Aramaic incantation texts as witnesses to the Mandaic Scriptures Social construction of knowledge or intra-communal concerns? Coptic letters from Sasanian Egypt Transmitting texts from Latin into Arabic. A Christian culture at risk in the heart of the Islamic rule in al-Andalus Scribal practices among Muslims and Christians: A comparison between the judicial letters of Qurra b. Sharīk and Ḥenanishoʻ (1st century AH) The earlier Ethiopic textual heritage Mapping scribal practices: telling another story Stephen Quirke Mark Weeden Sebastian P. Brock Geoffrey Khan Esther-Miriam Wagner Elizabeth Urban Timothy H. Lim Charles G. Häberl Myriam Wissa Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala Mathieu Tillier Alessandro Bausi Myriam Wissa Section one. Deconstructing "scribe", exploring scribal lore and script: the socio-political background of the ancient Egyptian, cuneiform, Syriac, Judeo-Arabic and Arabic scribal practices. Section two. The social context of writing, transcoding and transmitting knowledge in Judeo-Christian, Mandean, Coptic, Syriac, Latin-Arabic, Arabic and Ethiopic traditions. Conclusion
Scribal practices across disciplines are often explored through divisions between words, stiches and verses, sections, scribal hands and marks, correction and copying procedures. This volume offers a different perspective: writing as shown here is, at its heart, a deeply social practice connecting narrative to the different categories of knowledge (linguistic, political, administrative, legal, historical and geographic) and literacy. The twelve essays investigate how scribal practices are related to the construction of knowledge and challenge the conventional boundaries. They address various types of knowledge whose potential is triggered by certain needs and values in the context of Antiquity, Late Antiquity and Medieval Islam from al-Andalus through Egypt, Syria to Iraq, Anatolia and Bactria as far afield as Ethiopia. The vast majority of the papers are related thematically and the overall connection between the articles is the salient feature of this volume. The papers also demonstrate how the local context has shaped scribal practices allowing for cross-cultural comparison.