Documentary evidence and the production of power in medieval Nubia

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13034286
AutoresGiovanni R Ruffini (Fairfield University, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume07
Data de publicação2016-01-01
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAfriques (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2108-6796 • E-ISSN: 2108-6796
EditoraOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/afriques.1871
OpenAlexW2566791550
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas6

Documents from Qasr Ibrim in northern Nubia reveal the administrative and legal practices of medieval Africa. The land sales provide direct glimpses into the activity of the eparch of Nobadia, the region’s highest political official, who was active in the region’s private land market. The accounts suggest the existence in northern Nubia of a cash economy and a gold-to-silver exchange rate identical to that of Muslim Egypt. The personal correspondence hints at power struggles between Nubia’s center and its periphery. This evidence is not an accident or a side-effect. It is a deliberate feature of the texts themselves. Nubian correspondence includes suggestions of insubordination and shows high officials attempting to re-establish their power at a distance. Some documents include explicit challenges to other texts, or defensive measures protecting a text against accusations of falsehood. In this way, the texts become weapons in an ongoing struggle. In short, documentary production in medieval Nubia was neither economically nor politically neutral. Nubia’s elite needed its documentary evidence to construct its power

Art · Construct (python library · Documentary evidence · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Elite · Humanities · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · African history and culture analysis · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Law

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