P R O C E E D I N G S

of the

S E M I N A R F O R A R A B I A N S T U D I E S

V O L U M E 3 4

2 0 0 4

Papers fix»m the thirty-seventh meeting of theSeminar for Arabian Studies

held in London, 17-19 July 2003

S E M I N A R F O R A R A B I A N S T U D I E S

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Pivcttdin^of thé Stmbue'fiir Arabian StudHsyAiXWH)-. 2T7-292

Trade on the Red Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods.The Quçeir paper manuscript collection 1999-2003, first data

A>NE RECOURD

Quteir al-Otdlm [QAQ] ii the site of an ancient port'located some 8 km north of âte modem town of Quscirand southern Hurgbadah on the Red Sea coast of Egypt.YiqOt (sevenih/dtirteendt century) describes QAQ as a'baÀour of Yemeni sfa ' O^Qt al-HamawT1990/1410, iv: 417, i». 9722). U Guo mentions aninteresting Arabic letter, tbou^ to be either Ayyubid orMamluk. which requests 'siqiplies far a ship stuck nearYemen', in an as yet unidentified place called al*Qasral.YamlnT. and suggests 'souk kind of regular transputof concspondeiKe. supplies, merchaitdiK, and evencash through a kind of maritime shuttle service betweenQuseir and Yemen' (Guo 1999: 164, 168 far dating,181-185 Text 3, RN 1059). The excavations conductedby the Univcrtity of Southampton Irom 1999 to 2003revealed a great deal of pottery of Yemeni provenanceespecially from ZabTd, in Tihlinah, close to the Red Seacoast, 'dated to a period ... identified as AO 1150-1350' (Bridgman 2001: 45^. 47, nos 1 and 2; 2002:59-62).

Excavations conducted at dK site in 1978,1980 and1982 by a mam from the Oriental Institute of theUni>'eniiy of Chicago under the diiectioD of Whitcomband Johnson led to the conclusioD that the Roman sitewas reoccupied again in the Islamic period from thethirteenth until the early sixteenth century (see^Ititcomb & Johnson 1979 and 1982). Some of thefragments of Arabic documents found by the Chicagoteam ha\'e tlieady been studied by Michael Dois (1979:248. on the 1978 season), Gladys Frantz-Muiphy 0982:267-279, on the 1978 season), Jennifer M. Thayer(1993 and 1995. on the 1982 season), and Li Guo (1999and 2001, on the 1982 season). For my part, I wish topublish a selection of tiie fragments discovered between1999 and 2003, and I am currently at the first stage ofthis project.

Rou^y one thousand and fnty fragments of p^rdocumcnu in Arabic were found in QAQ between 1999and 2003. Some are without writing, others widt re>maiiu of writing. Many are very small. Oik document

was partially reconstructed by piecing together relatedfragments.'

The only date frnind in the 1999-2003 fragments refers to the month of rajab of the year 700/1301, in theearly Mamluk period (656/1258 - 918/1512), (Fig. 1).This is probably dK date of the document itself. Manyexcavated buildings in QAQ have already been identified as Mamluk. .Michael Dois mentions a letter which,'seems to bear a dau of 615/1218', i.e. the late Ayyubidperiod (Dois 1979: 248). The letter (RN 592), publishedby G. Frantz-Muiphy refers to the tran^n of goodsaiwl pilgrims in QAQ (Fraatz-.Muiphy 1982: 273-277).Thayer notes a receipt darad 14 $af 633/30 Getter1235 (RN 988), but says dut 'much of the material isundated" (Thayer 1993: 206,205). Guo's reading of the1982 season findings yielded three more letters dated612/1215-1216 (RN 1063). 626/1228-1229 (RN 1017),and "one fiagmnu (RN 1020) reads '61...', that is, thefirst decade of dK seventh century A.H. [AD 1213-1222]. So fer all the dated evidence [scH. in the materialstudied » 1999] is from the first four decades of thesevemh/thinccnth couury, namely, the period of thereigns of the Ayyubid sultans al-Malik al-'Adil (d.615/1217) and his son al-Malik al-Klmil (d. 635/1238)'(Cuo 1999:162).' Generally speaking the reconstructedarchives of a 'particular grain exporting agent or 'company" in QAQ are considered to be Ayyubid (see noK10, below). This information, as evidence of international trading activity in QAQ during both the Ayyubidand Mamluk periods, is consistent with the Arabicsources (Carcin 1976; see index s.v. "Quscir"; Garcin1986: 519; Thayer 1993: 206. 209, 220). The QAQfragments are undated ones. Ofocr collections of Arabiccorrespondence found or collected in Egypt and datedhypot cally to the Mamluk period or before, arc undated, such as those that may Ik seen in Werner Diem'scatalogues of the Vienna collection (Diem 1995: 2, §4).A very rough overview of the QAQ fragments confirmstint t arc not all from the same period, and somemay go back to the Fatimid period 1 have started

Anne Regourd

.*•1

[CONTEXT

INV.NO. PA.é>n^\

JîfrJw - /

*^rUét^vr

FlGC'RC I. PA0378. Th« dut» rtftn to du early Mamiukperiod.(636/12S8-9I8/ISI2).

M

S < 1

^ ? ! 0 I

FlCtRE X PA0393. A noie recording a delivery on the QAQ coast.

Trad* on th* Red S*a during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods 2 7 9

Fic(;R£ 3. PA0206. A note recording a delivery on the QAQ coast.

to collect ibe paleeographic chancterietict of the hand-writiagt, hut ting by other means will also be neces-s a r y .

The collection is coir^osed mainly of documents,but there are also a number of codex fragments.

T h e d o c u m e n t s

CorreqtondenceThe majority of the legible documents consist of ptivauletters touching on personal and business matters (seefor instance Fig. 4). ScNvral combine both; for example,PA0330, where on one side merchandise is meiuioacdartd on the other the letter-writer addresses his father.

QAQ or the QAQ coast is refinred m by name inroughly fifteen documents;* In fiKt a significant proportion of these can be considered letten — given thatFrantz-Muiphy found only one in the thirty fragmentswhich she 'selected on the criteiia of their legibilityfrom slides taken in the field of approximately 200documents uncanhcd in the first season' (Franiz-Murphy 1982: 267). She writes; "The ovcrwiwlmingmajority of documents read were personal and businesscorrespondence which bad been sent into QuKir from

the interior of Egypt Quseit is refitrred to by name inone fragment (from SI2c-7, RN 393). Therefore thesed o c u m e n t s a r e m o r e i n f o r m a t i v e a b o u t a f & i i s i n t h einterior than about the port city itselT (Fnotz-Muiphy1982: 268). As for the fragments studied by Thayer,"only a handful refers to dte city by name' (Thayer1993:211).'° This is a significant contribution made bythe fragments unearthed in 1999 and the followingyears.

Seven fragments that I have only partially read,probably of letters, refer to QAQ and bear witness toeconomic actixity, especially tian^on (PA0206, 1;PA021I ; PA0387; PA0393: PA0383; PA05IS;PA0506). One speaks of salt (PA02I1,1). References tothe "QAQ coast" can be read in four fragments, one ofwhich reports dtat a letter has reached a certain AbQJamil on the QAQ coast AbQ Jaibll is a rubbân, that is asea captain of fishing vessels but also of transport shipsnot normally used for long-distance voyages (Aaus, inthe press: Gutpter five) (PA0206, 1) (Fig. 3). Twoother fragments mention a certain sbipmeiu of flour —which usually came from within Egypt — delivered onthe same coast (PA0385 and PA0393) (Fig. 2), notin the port {minah) of QAQ, as mentioned in oneof the undated fragments translated by Fnntz-Muiphy

2 8 0 Anne Regourd

Ficliu 4. PA0579A. An example of a business letter.

(1982: 277-279). Apart from the fiKt that "it is clearthat much of the corrc^xmdence wis incomiag fromother pans of the country" (Thayer 1993: 212, commeaton ilâ and not sâbil). ccûld this mean that the commercial activity dtat seems to be mentioned in these fragments. particularly transport, went on between the portand die QAQ coast for an as yet undetermined period?Does it confrim that the "port" had a very sitnple infrastructure? Or docs it ottly mean that t warehouseswere on the coast? Another fragment reports the deathof a sheikh on the QAQ coast (re^rectively PA0381A,PA0381 ). Does the fiict that this document is written ina calligraphic script indicate dtat diis is a notifrcation ofhis death? The odter side was used by someone else towrite a letter concerning personal matters. We alreadyknow that paper was recycled for the purpose of cone-spondeitce. Tlie cause of death does not appear on thefragment Could this mean that the QAQ coast was dangerous?

Regarding other places mentioned, dte word ormifrf can be read with near certainty in PA0251, 2;

PA0395h and PAI)603, but In two of the fragmeitts thecontext is msuflicicnt for any more to be said about itand the third has yet to be deciphered. Qifr has also beenfound (PA0369, city and nisbah: Muhammad al-Qayyida]-( ftl). So fer no reference to die pilgrimage hasbeen found.

A c c o u n t s a n d r e c o r d s / n o t e s o f b u s i n e u t r a n s a c d o n i

Few accounts were found. One document is eniiiled"bill" (bisâb) and concerns a bakery (PA0248. Fig.5).Although it is very informal (no basmalah, no fbmtulaicexpressions, very casual writing), the layout of the pageimitaies that of a letter eleven lines, plus two lines inthe margin. Neither names nor prices arc mentioncd.only prtxhicts (iub:, lufk, daqJq and 'allâmah), quantities and weights {rail and flrà/ - athfah, not recordedby Guo 2001: SSff.). One fragment is organized by daysof the week, each day's entry being separated frtnn tothcn by a line and some recording purchases(PA0370A and B, from and back, see Fig. 6; see Guo2001: 84-85, RN 991b). Some accounts were also foundwith a system of figure-coding called styàqah, known tohave been used by the Ottoman administration'*(PA0390 + back & PA04d5). But as this system appeared at the beginning of the caliphate in tfie dhvm-sfor financial affein. at the highest level of dieadministration (Fekete 1955, i: 21), then spread and wasused by the Egyptian administration at least until thesixteenth century (Michel 1996: 129), it is difficult tosay more about the date of these fragments withoutfurther study. It seems thai a study of the palaeographymay be of some help. On the back of PA0465 there iswiiat appears to be a recipe gising a list of ingredients.There are signs under some letters intended to remindscribes that there is no missing dot (for instance here itis indeed a fd* and a 'ayn rather than a cô' or a ^ayn).This 4>pean to be recycled paper, so it may be from diesixteendi century or later, given die accounting systemon the other side.

There are some exanqtlcs of records and notes ofbusiness transactions — what Guo has called "shippingnotes" (2001: 82-83) — for instance PAÛ393 andPA0385 (GttO's Types 1 & 3). PA0385 records that acamel-load of flour for the servant Ibrlhtm b. Abl Mu-fenij arrived (wàfiti cm the coast of al-(2u$eir in thecharge of SulaymSn al-JibtlT (ai-Jamtll?) on Mufiarram29 ... (?); unfortunately the year is missing (see Fig. 7and Guo 1999: 165 for AbO Mufrurij's fiunily-tree,lOlff., Text 6 for an exanqile of warh- One set offragments consists of small texts sepaiated from others

Trade on the Red Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamhik periods

r\Ck.U.5.PA0248.A bakery bill.

W '

FlCUftf 6. PA0370B. A codex fragment (bottom l^j.and two day-to-day records of purchases.

2 8 2 Anne Regourd

FlUC R£ 7. PA03S5. WafI, a delivery of flour.

tre also I» : outs (PA0465. in the same recipeX andperhaps u*»—- : (7) soap (PA0309,2). The word(PA0364) raises difficulties since there are two possiblereadings: qtanâS and qammSi, i.e. clod) and cloth merchant; the fragment is extremely small and damaged, sothe context is missing.

Arabic sources, the QAQ documents, and archaeological discoveries have already shown that Hour, wheatand barley, like spices and textiles, were items of inter-naticmal trade at QAQ.'* Oil and salt appear as well AsThayer remarks, dte "coirgtany" of Sbeildi AbO Muiimijand Son "seems to set as both a storage service anddealer in cereals aitd other basic provisions such as oil,flour and salt'(1993; 212; see also Guo 2001: 89-90).Soap, like salt, is worthy of consideration. Garcin mentions oil made in Qifr m produce different sorts of soapwhich were exported within atxl outside Eg>pt (1976:13. n. IX Thayer ciKs QAQ receipts for the deliveryof soap as "reflecting possibili^ of trade in Egypt or at

by a line (PA0277A. PA0464 f 465. frontand back, and QAQ03T 208, Fig. 8). Some-titttes the text is crossed out In two of them,the word jumlah or juma! ^rpcars, whichcan mean wholesale delivery. In one oftbcnt the word Juma! appears as a title. Thisfragment is unfortunately in poor conditionand only some numbers and possibly theword daqlq are legible.

To these, I would like to add a type ofdocumeiu (?) which I am not yet able toidentify" in which the word -tk* appearsrepeatedly with ordinal numbers (PA0254 *back PA0265A; PA0258. 2; PA02S8A, 2;PA025S *■ back PA0255A, which arc fimg-fficms from die same document, Fig.9, secabove and note 6).

Several commodit ies arc mentioned.There are numerous references, not only toflour but also to wheat'' and barley, as wellas to oil (PA0321; PA0329A. I (?];PA465); and frk* : sah (PA0211, 1). Spicesare also recorded; J-kli : pepper (PA0329,2 ) ; s u m a c a n d t h y m e(PA0465), but in the context of a rccfoc thisc o u l d b e t h e w e l l - k n o w n o r i e n t a l m i x t u r emade with thyme (?) — but we do not haveany idea about the date of the recipe. There

FlGlRE. 8. QAQ03T208. A wholesale delhery with a Une crossingi t ou t

Tnxk on th« Red Sea during the Àyyubid and Mamluk periods

. — ^ p

Quseir ai-Qadim 2001

Figure 9. PA0254*PA02S5. A "comroci"? An example of a documentpartially reconstructed by piecing together related fragments.

2S4 Anac Regourd

Mekkt' (1993: 214; sec also Cuo 2001: 90). Unfbmi-oately, fragment (PA0309, 2) is badly damaged.Siacc tbe reference to q)icc3 and nuts occurs in a recipe,tbey may have been for local consun^on.

At least some locally produced fbodstufis and domestic items are mentioned: .3^4: bread (PA0248:PA0328A [?]), ^ : biscuit (PA0248): ^ (dialectal

): dates (PA0274,1 (?]); : gariic (PA0465).There are of course a number of cases «Itéré the

documents are so fragmentary that 1 ha\-e not yet beenable to categorize them. The final publication will include the original Arabic text, an English translation,and physical descriptions.

The Codices

Nine fragments of codiccs were found, in trench 2B(one fragment, 2001), trench 5 (four figments, 2002and 2003), trench 8 (one fragment, 2001) and trench 13(three fragments)."

Typoiogj

As foe co l lec t ion inc ludes both doctnacnt t and cod iccsand the fragments are often very small, it was necessaryto establish a classificatory typology. 1 can discem fourmajor diffoxcnccs in the handwriting and the way thesheet of paper was used for wiitmg and folded.

HanéwrtrUtg

In correspondence, tbe hand«Titing is generally "casual'; that is, without regard for elegance or evenregularity (even in the way a given letter at tbe sameposition in a word is frMmed), while for codices it m^well be "calligrapbic"." This criterion is insufficientlyprecise, bowev-er, since calligraphic writing is also to befrnutd on certain types of documents and there it nomethodical tudy of bow </Mn bandMiitings werefonned (Ddrocbe et ai 2000:232).

The use of margins

In coiiespondcncc. tbe written line exteitds to the edgeof tbe paper on tbe left, while the margin, usually on theright, may be used on both sides to write out the ccn-tinuatioD of the text To do this, the paper was movedfrom right to left The general impression is of a saturated surfoce. though there are exceptions.'* In the codiccs the margin was generally used for glosses, or for

chapter titles, etc., that is. It wu used for meiaicxt ofsome sort In sotiK cases, for content entirely unrelatedto the body of tbe text (marnX e.g.. accounts. In exceptional cases, codex text ove wt into the margin —above foe colophon, for example — instead of onto anew sheet

The layout of the page

A codex is made up of bi-folios. Except in the case ofpoetry, an opened bi-folio shows two columns of text,each corresponding to a page; the two pages arc separated by the central fold. For documents, on tbe otherhand, the meet eoR lete fiagmenu show that tbe sheetof paper was laid down wifo foe long side at rigbt-an ct to the writer and the text written in a single colu m n .

How the paper was folded

Most of the fragments show that the paper «-as foldedhorizontally and parallel to the writing. It was alsofolded vertically (there are a few traces of such folds,which are much furtber apart than tbe horizontal mies).It seems probable that the papers were first folded atri t-angles to ibc writing, aiul fois may be called "ordinary folding." But there is also a triangular folding pattern which «as used for personal correspondence(PA0597, Fig. 10), and this type of docustent meriu aseparate publication.

These points raise the question of the format of thepaper used for documenu. QalqashandT provides someinformation cm tbe paper used in the Mamluk chancellery (dfwân al-mSd'} dtber by chancelleiy corre^n-dents or by sheildis for ijâsât, Le. authorization slips forfocir disciples (Qalqashandl 1987: mainly voIuum: vL«-oric completed in AO I4I2). He indicaras tiiat tbere«as a rehuiraship between the paper format and chancellery addressees. A recently published study of Egyptian paper compares ( IqashandTs indications and fooseof an anonymous BNP manuscript of the same periodwith Jean Iiigoin's descriptions of the format of paperused in bookmakiiig in foe Near East from the ninthcentury. ' This study sbo«-s that the papa used by thechancellery «as not of foe same format as "booksellers'"paper of tite sort sold to private individuals for foe purposes of correspondence or bookmaking, even fooughthe two types had foe same name (Humben 2002: 71-75). This study should therefore continued on tbebasis of complete ittms in collections.

Trade on the Red Sea during rite Ayyubid and Mamluk periods 285

Figure lO. PA0597, An example of triangular folding.

The subjects of the codices

Codex subjects arc often impossible n> demnnine owingto faded ink and fragment size. What we do know is frtatthe only complete folio to be discovered (PA0288, Fig.12) is organized into at least seven chqners {bâh, ab-wâb). Are they pan of a treatise? One of the fragments(PA0497, Fig. 11) belongs to a grammatical text dealingwith phonology and contains a quotation from theQur'in. (jurar 7S.tu/'[12]: 90). Certain futures enableus to determine that tlw scribe was copying with care ina calligraphic style. The circle and three points visibleon the sheet seem to me made to complete the line afterthe ertd of die sentence (hâ') rather than transmissionmarks which would therefore suggest the sheet was usedby a sheikh for teaching purposes. But PA0295 bears areading mark consisting of a red circle (Fig. 13).

Why codlcci?It would be interesting to know why codices as well asdocuments were found on the site. Four of the nine codex fragments arc vocalized; three were found in Trench

1 3 i n 2 0 0 3 ( PA 0 4 9 7[Fig.n); PA0501 [Fig.15];PA0400); one of these is thegrammatical text mentionedabove. Lastly, in 2003 twogalam-s were found, which Thave not yet had the t^ipor-cunity to study. These materials. and the codex fragments, raise die question ofwhether there were privateor waqf manuKiipt coUec-dons. and whedier religiousinstruction was provided bya sbdkh to scholars in QAQ,wiiieh it on the pilgrimager o u t e .

Can the codex fragmentstell us something about thebuildings, bow they wereu s e d o r d i e o w n e r ' s s o c i a l

position — for instancew h e t h e r o r n o t b e w u

wealthy, or a sheikh? Conversely, can the buildingswhere the codex fragmentswere frnind tel l us something about the existence ofprivate book coUectiom?

The archaeological data (trenches and the contexts inwhich die fragments were discovered) are such that wemust be cautious in drawing conclusions. After carefulexaminatioti of the context, it can be affrnned diat thefragment from Trench 2B was found in a weli-struifiedMamluk deposit with muiy different, valuable domesticanefiacts, all of which suggest pro^ierity; it seems possible dial individuals ben: owned expensive books byvirtue of dieir social position and wnlth. But the rubbish deposit was over the Mamluk wall, and therefore ismost likely unrelated to the use of that building(PA0370B. see Fig. d) (Copeland 2000 & 2001). Thefragments from Trench 5 were found in a well-stiatificddeposit in an elegant Mamluk building. But on die basisof context examination, we can only link the presence ofone fragment (PA0314, Fig.l4) to the building with anyeertamty (Beadsmorc & Walsh 2000: 39). The ctntexisinvolved in Trench 13 arc close to the surface, and therubbish where fragments were found seems unrelated toactivity in situ but seems rather to be refuse comingfrom other parts of die city. Fw the moment, therefore,it is difficult to draw any conclusions about the existence of private collections of books from the buildings.

Ame Regourd

* . i . . « • f s M . .

COQZ i"!-iPiO <<

FiGl'ftE 11. PA0497. A fivgment wiih text written tn red ink and vocaHxed.

" " k c t - 'V . . . .

* » a 4 K ] t « t M n u > v — ^ ^ '

ir-

1 ^ V ' ' • . i i ". . . , . " v - , » . . . X . . -

' • a v _ - T

Fjglrc 12. i4 complete folio in poor condition.

Track on the Red Sea during the Ayyvbid and Mambtkperiods

FiCL'U 13. PA0295. A thirteent}Kentur\- eodex, with a transmission markconsisting of a red circle.

Figure 14. PA0314. a full line written in red ink.

2 8 8 Aaae Regourd

FlGtHC 15. PA0497/Jm. PA0501. T\m fragments withv o c a l i z t d t e a .

or «bout dw fimction of dte buildings fiom the codexfragments. The fragments found by the Chicago expedition, which are not documents (see note 16), may possibly preside further infonnatioD. Caution is necessary,however, especially given the small quantity of codexfragments, some of wtaicb were, moreover, fbund mi diefurfoce or amongst rubbish. In addition, written sourcesand in particular al-EdftJwrl, do not seem to refor m religious teaching of any inqMrtancc in QAQ during theperiod.

C o n d a s i o n s

The number of fragments found between 1999 and 2003is high. The only date fbund refers to the early Mamlukperiod. Quseit or "die QAQ coast" Is refund to byname in a significant proportion of the fragments. Theoverwhelming majority of the documents is correspondence (personal vid business), but some accounts andr e c o r d s a n d n o t e s o f b u s i n e s s t r a n s a c t i o n w e r e a l s o

fouixL In this preliminary report on work-in-progress. Ihave highli^ted references to commodities, a few foodstuffs and domestic items. It is safe to say that while thecollection will provide a considerable amount of economic information, it will probably be hard » place it ina broader con^xt In addition, a few fragments of codices were found. In some, the text is vocalized or bearstransmission features. But, at the present time, buildingexcavation does not allow us to draw any exclusionsabout the existence of private book coUectiont, and thestudy of die fragments of codices docs not give us anyclues u to die function of the buildings, oc even thestatus of any teaching activiiy at QAQ. which is x thepilgrimage route. Nor do the Arabic sources oflbr us xyassistance x these matters.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank my colleague and director. Prof.D.A. Agius, for providing me with infimnatix x therubbdn and about trench 13.1 am very gratefbl to JiUianPhillips and Penny Copeland (Southampton) for theirhelp in giving precise descriptions of trenches and cx-tcxta, and especially to Miss Copeland for die enonnousamount of work she did to clarify for me the cxtexts oftrenches 28. 5 and 8. I would also like to thank Prof.Jean-Claude Garcin (professor emeritus at die University of Aix-en-Provence) and Dr Li Cuo (University ofNotre Dame) for dieir %'aluable answers to my questionsX Arabic sources and die nature of die two documents Ihave briefly described. Wannest dianls also to Prof. F.Déroche (EPHE, Paris) for his interesting remaria onthe Codices pan of my paper. The photographs arc published with die auihoiizadx of the University of Southampton. Dr Robert Hoyland (Orixtal Institute. Oxford),wbo chaired my paper at Seminar, very helpfullyremarked x the foâ that some codex fragments werefound amongst rubbish. This study would not have beenpossible without the support of the AHRB.

Notes

' This has been identified as the Roman pon of MyosHormos, see Blue 2CX)2; Peacock et al. 1999,2(100,2001,2000.^ Geogr ihers from the seventh/thiitexth to thenimh/fifleendi centuries used the same cxprcssixcontinuously: 'QAQ is the pon of Q09." But usuallythey preferred rbe word Jur^ah ("a natural harbour")rather than marfiP Cut anchorage eriiich is actually

Trodt on the JUd Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods 2 8 9

used') for 'porr" (see Gtrcin 1976: 6, a. 1).For in overview of the Yemeni presence in the Sa^dtad OD the Egyptian side of the Red Set, eq>ecitllyin 'Aydhib. see Caicin 1976: 638-639, index s.v.Y é m e n t o d Z t b T d .

'Fragmeim discovered in the 1980 season have notpreviously been studied' (Cuo 1999: 161-162). Theseasons 1978, 1980, 1982, 'produced over five hundred fragments of paper with Arabic uiiting ond>em, in most cases occurring on both sides of thepaper" (Th^«r 1993: 244). "RN + number" is thereference of the QAQ fragments found by the Chicago expedition.The RQAD Project (Reconstructing the QuseiriArabic Documents, www.rqad.Ieeds.ac.uk) under thedirection of Frof. DA. Agius is part of theElcpanmcm of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies ofthe School of Modem Languages and Cultures andthe Cen t re f o r Med i te r ranean S tud ies a t t heUniversity of Leeds (UK). The Project is inpartttcnbip with the QAQ Projea at die Universityof Southampton (www.arch.soton.ac.uk/Rcaearcb/Quseir/).The e lemen ts taken in to cons ide ra t i on were t renchand context, paper as it appears in the digital image,colour of the ink. writing, whether or not it joins another fragment and fngment content. More conclusive evidence howevor is provided by beta-radiograpby as the laid lines and the chain lines varyfrom one sheet of paper to another.Fragment is PA0278, 2000, from trench 5. context3017. The analysis carried out in dw field su^estedthat it was found in a rc-occtqiied part of a Mamlukbuilding (Bcadsroorc Sl Walsh 2000: 39). The context of sand mixed with pieces of gypsum limestonehas been interpreted as part of the construction of thebuilding, and the layer can be related to its earliestphase. A relationship between the fragment and thebuilding is therefore quite possible. If "the modifications and possible episodes of reuse suggest that theoccupation of the building was comparativelylengdty" (Beadsmore & Walsh 2000: 39). the earlydate of the fragment in the Mamluk period may allow us to infer the length of time.Cuo mentions another damd fragment (RN 1014) butdoes not reveal the date (Cuo 1999:167).. H — ^ « L U : i n P A 0 2 0 6 , 1 ;P A 0 2 1 1 , 1 ; P A 0 3 7 7 B ; P A 0 3 8 1 . - J i nP A 0 3 8 1 A . i n P A 0 3 8 5 : P A 0 3 8 7 ;PA0395fr PA0395b; PA0393: PA0491; PA0515;PA0506. j i ' *«1 in PA0483. FragmentPA0313, 3, is problematic because diere is no con

t e x t"* On the basis of the occurrence of (he name Qu$eir ina few letters, however Thayer has reconstructed thearchives of a 'particular grain exporting agent or'company.'... It is certain that this business concernwas located in Qusayr as some of the correspondence addressed to Sheikh Abu Mulinrv does bearthe heading ilâ sâbil Qufayr^ (Thayer 1993: 211-212). This study was completed by Cuo, who alsoreconstructed the frcmily tree, established the membership of the Conqwiy, and listed some "pe^lcwho Âd business with the Company' (Cuo 1999:162,163-166)." Rubbân ^rpean in the following fragmenfi:PA0206, 1; PA0265A, 1 {altvbbân Yûsuf) andPA0343A {rvhbàn Abu 'Azh)." Al-J.d.ah (PA0279. i) can be either Jidda (Juddah)or grand-mother {Jaddah). But if the previous wordreally is blbàr, it may be the chy." Fekete 1955, i: 32-50; ii: pi. I-llL For Egypt, seeMichel 1996: 129, and table on 130; Hinds & Ménage 1991: 92ff.. Group C; Cuo 1999: 166. RN1001a, ICS' 1936b.Li Cuo's typology (2001: 82-85) is not disctisscdhere as T am at the veiy beginning of my study of theQAQ fragments.'* Flour : PA0295.2 {daqlq qildah)-, PA0296A,2: PA0378; PA0379A; PA0393 (qifo^tayn daqJqY,PA0395O (once or twice); PA0395q (qlftfal daqîq);PA0499 (bifulolayn daqTqy, PA0593 {daqîq andqitdat daqlq). : (very finely ground flour) isfound in PA0248. Wheat: PA0275A. 2; PA0372. thebiggest (bm! qamb)l PA0395a; PA0395n (3 times);P a 0 4 5 7 : ( s e c T h a y e r 1 9 9 3 : 2 1 6 ) :P A 0 2 2 3 A ." Garcin 1976: see index s.v. wheat ices, textiles:Carcin 1986: 519; Thayer 1993: 214, 215-216'Overwhelmingly, the (}usayr fragments mentionwheat and flour, and this could have been the principal commodity for Shaykh Abu Mufiurij'; tbid. 215,Shdkh Abu MuArrij and his son "may have beeninvolved in some foreign trade"; Cuo 2001: 85, "11.The commoditict"; Handley 1999; 2000; 66." Trench 2B. year 2002 - context 2322: PA0370B.Trench 5, year 2000 - context 3067: PA0288 andPA0295 (Figs 12 and 13); context 3113: PA0314(Fig.14). Trench 8, year 2001 - context 8001:PA0336. Trench 13. year 2003 - context 5513:PA0497 and PA0501 (Figs. 11 and 15); context5508: PA0400; Pic 0009-0010: no ixtfonnatiooabout the trench and cmuext Fragments PA0373Bff., year 2002, trench 2B. cmuext 2317, are pieces

2 9 0 Anne Regourd

from • printed book. Fragment P^394, year 2002.treoch 9, cotitext 3109, is so badly damaged that it isdifficult to tell «tether it is pan of a codex. In addition. there arc some fragments mentioned by Guo«inch are not documents, but at present it is not possible to distinguisb whether or not they arc codiccs:ten religious texts, including frilly voealized quranicselections, religious treatises, or prayers; two literaiytexts; four miscellanies (astrolo^cal and magictexts) (Guo 1999; 166). If all «ore codiccs. we havea total of twenty-five fragments. No comments onthe contexts were given.'* "Casual" and "calligraphic" are translations of theFretKh terms "denture infonneUe" and "soignée"recommended by François Déroche, followingHoudas (1886: 105, 110), and they emphasize diatthe notion of "eursives" is inapplicable to Arabic

manuscripts (Déroche 1998: 376-378 and Dérocheera/. 2000:231-232).See, for example, the private letter PA0330, with noright or left margin, or PA0596 (Trench 13,5523).^ The manuscript is catalogued as Dhvan al'inshâ,Arabic 4439. I t is la ter than AD 1430. The t ransla-tion is in Quatremére 1836.lrigoml993.^ Personal communication from Jean-Claude Garcin.Thayer mentions half a dozen men «ho bear die tide"sheikh" and are related to die "company" of sheikhAbo Muftrrij. But it is difficult to fix tbe ofthe ictm m each case, considering its wide scope(Tbtyer 1993: 217£). She also metuions a judge —and Guo a — «ho was a son of Abû Mufiurij(Guo 1999; 164).

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Author 's addressAnne Regourd, Reconstructing dte Quseiri Arabic Documents Project, LGOt Michael Sadler Building. University ofLeeds. Leeds. LS2 9JT.uk.e-mail a.rcgourd^ccds.ac.uk