Late Antiquity to Islam. Edition of the Senouthios Archive

During the time spent working on the project New Papyri from Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine and Arabic Egypt, which was financed by the START-Programme of the FWF, a large archive of outstanding historical interest, which has so far remained unnoticed, was identified in the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library. The archive contains for the most part administrative correspondence in Greek between high officials of the Hermopolite nome (Middle Egypt) at the time of the Arbaic conquest and the years, which followed it. The correspondence touches upon very different aspects of administrative life: the introduction and raising of new taxes and charges, the requisition of food, materials and work forces, public buildings, the relationship between the Islamic State and the Christian Church, the creation of a new organisation and structure of the administrative system, the administration of justice, measures taken to control the population. With the help of these documents it is possible to observe in detail, how the administration of Late Antiquity adapted itself to the new ruler, and how the model of the Arabic State grew out of the first provisional military administrative structures. The archive represents the most important batch of source material for investigating a historical turning point. With the transition of a part of the Christian World of Late Antiquity, when it came under islamic rule, the unity of the Mediterranean, which had characterised Antiquity, was broken. As a result of these events new constellations - which are relevant even today - came into being. New cultural areas with different geographical priorities become apparent. Alongside the numerous documents in Vienna there are smaller groups of texts or single documents belonging to this archive in other Collections, above all in Strasbourg and London. The project intends to identify further texts which belong to this archive as well as producing an edition of them (transcription, translation, introduction and commentary) and a historical evaluation of this unique documentation. The work is to be carried out in the context of European Cooperation between Vienna, Oxford and Strasbourg - the most important papyrological centres in the respective countries.

During the time spent working on the project New Papyri from Ptolemaic, Roman, Byzantine and Arabic Egypt, which was financed by the START-Programme of the FWF, a large archive of outstanding historical interest, which has so far remained unnoticed, was identified in the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library. The archive contains for the most part administrative correspondence in Greek between high officials of the Hermopolite nome (Middle Egypt) at the time of the Arbaic conquest and the years, which followed it. The correspondence touches upon very different aspects of administrative life: the introduction and raising of new taxes and charges, the requisition of food, materials and work forces, public buildings, the relationship between the Islamic State and the Christian Church, the creation of a new organisation and structure of the administrative system, the administration of justice, measures taken to control the population. With the help of these documents it is possible to observe in detail, how the administration of Late Antiquity adapted itself to the new ruler, and how the model of the Arabic State grew out of the first provisional military administrative structures. The archive represents the most important batch of source material for investigating a historical turning point. With the transition of a part of the Christian World of Late Antiquity, when it came under islamic rule, the unity of the Mediterranean, which had characterised Antiquity, was broken. As a result of these events new constellations - which are relevant even today - came into being. New cultural areas with different geographical priorities become apparent. Alongside the numerous documents in Vienna there are smaller groups of texts or single documents belonging to this archive in other Collections, above all in Strasbourg and London. The project intends to identify further texts which belong to this archive as well as producing an edition of them (transcription, translation, introduction and commentary) and a historical evaluation of this unique documentation. The work is to be carried out in the context of European Cooperation between Vienna, Oxford and Strasbourg - the most important papyrological centres in the respective countries.