From Archive to Archival Practices

Rethinking the Preservation of Mamluk Administrative Documents

Bibliographic Data

ID3958858
AuthorsKonrad Hirschler (0000-0002-6012-7711, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume136
Issue1
Publication date2021-12-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherAmerican Oriental Society (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.1.1
OpenAlexW3151632990
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This article proposes a new approach to the question of why so few Arabic documents have survived in their original archival context. Taking the Mamluk period as a case study it argues that the category "archive" itself needs to be reconfigured, away from the idea of fixed archival spaces, or even a Mamluk state archive, toward archival practices. These archival practices were spread across the Mamluk realm and involved numerous actors, which included the central bureaucracy in Cairo, individual secretaries, and, most importantly, the small-scale administration managed by officers. These archival practices emerge not from normative and narrative texts, but primarily from a consideration of archival traces on surviving documents

Ancient history · Arabic · Archaeology · Art · Bureaucracy · Context (archaeology) · Islam · Linguistics · Literature · Mamluk · Narrative · Normative · Political science · Politics · Realm · State (computer science) · Archaeological Research and Protection · Computer Science · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy

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