Research Catalog

Title

Scribal practices and the social construction of knowledge : in antiquity, late antiquity and medieval Islam / edited by Myriam Wissa ; foreword by Sebastian Brock ; préface by Pascal Vernus.

Publication

• Leuven ; Bristol, CT : Peeters, 2017.
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Wissa, Myriam
• Brock, Sebastian P.
• Vernus, Pascal

Description

253 pages : illustrations, maps; 26 cm

Summary

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.

Series Statement

Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (OLA) ; 266

Uniform Title

Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta ; 266.

Subjects

• Egypt
• Jewish learning and scholarship
• 500-1500
• Scribes, Jewish
• Learning and scholarship > History > Medieval, 500-1500
• Islamic learning and scholarship
• Learning and scholarship > Medieval
• History
• Learning and scholarship > Egypt
• Scribes > Egypt

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Language (note)

• Primarily in English. Preface in French.

Contents

Foreword / Sebastian P. Brock -- Préface / Pascal Vernus -- Introduction / 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. Writing practices, people and materials in Egypt to the first millennium BC / Stephen Quirke -- The construction of meaning on the cuneiform periphery / Mark Weeden -- Scribal tradition and the transmission of Syriac literature in Late Antiquity and Early Islam / Sebastian P. Brock -- Arabic documents from the early Islamic period / Geoffrey Khan -- Scribal practice in the Jewish community of Medieval Egypt / Esther-Miriam Wagner -- Scribes as scapegoats: language, identity, and power in Jahshiyārī's Book of Viziers and Scribes / Elizabeth Urban -- SECTION TWO. THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WRITING, TRANSCODING AND TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE IN JUDEO-CHRISTIAN, MANDEAN, COPTIC, SYRIAC, LATIN-ARABIC, ARABIC AND ETHIOPIC TRADITIONS. The Rabbinic concept of Holy Scriptures as sacred objects / Timothy H. Lim -- The Aramaic incantation texts as witnesses to the Mandaic Scriptures / Charles G. Häberl -- Social construction of knowledge or intra-communal concerns? Coptic letters from Sasanian Egypt / Myriam Wissa -- Transmitting texts from Latin into Arabic. A Christian culture at risk in the heart of the Islamic rule in al-Andalus / Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala -- Scribal practices among Muslims and Christians: A comparison between the judicial letters of Qurra b. Sharīk and Ḥenanishoʿ (1st century AH) / Mathieu Tillier -- The earlier Ethiopic textual heritage / Alessandro Bausi -- CONCLUSION. Mapping scribal practices: telling another story / Myriam Wissa.

Call Number

JFF 18-1404

ISBN

• 9042933143
• 9789042933149

OCLC

1035392902

Title

Scribal practices and the social construction of knowledge : in antiquity, late antiquity and medieval Islam / edited by Myriam Wissa ; foreword by Sebastian Brock ; préface by Pascal Vernus.

Publisher

Leuven ; Bristol, CT : Peeters, 2017.

Copyright Date

©2017

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (OLA) ; 266

Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta ; 266.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Language

Primarily in English. Preface in French.

Chronological Term

500-1500

Added Author

Wissa, Myriam, editor. Editor

Brock, Sebastian P., writer of supplementary textual content. Writer of supplementary textual content

Vernus, Pascal, writer of preface. Writer of preface

Research Call Number

JFF 18-1404