Third Conference of the International Society for
Arabic Papyrology (ISAP)
Documents and the History of the Early Islamic World
http://www.ori.unizh.ch/isap/Conference2006.html
23–26 March 2006
Bibliotheca Alexandrina Auditorium
Hosted and Co-organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in
co-operation with the Netherlands–Flemish Institute in Cairo
Sponsored by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, British Academy, Egypt Exploration Society, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Centre d'Etudes Alexandrines, Swedish Institute in Alexandria and Princeton University
Conference background
Scholars working on the medieval Islamic world are often heard to lament the lack of contemporary documentary evidence for this period. This issue, however, has less to do with survival of documents and archives from early Islam, than with the difficulties in accessing them. Yet the benefits are potentially immense. Early Islamic documents, written in Arabic, Greek and Coptic, on papyrus, parchment, cloth, bone, leather potsherds and paper, include every kind of document imaginable: tax receipts, government edicts, marriage contracts, shopping lists, personal letters, passports, religious texts, magic spells, bills of lading, house deeds, even school exercises. Together, these documents have the potential to shed a vivid and detailed new light on Islamic Mediterranean culture and society. As new documents are brought to light,