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Documenting Death: A Question of Sovereignty in the Cairo Geniza
How can death offer a case study for the question of sovereignty in eleventh to thirteenth century Egypt as it was performed by sovereigns, officials, and subjects alike, and, in this context, how can the documentary practices preserved in the Geniza be understood as an instrument to perform sovereignt...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2026
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| Summary: | How can death offer a case study for the question of sovereignty in eleventh to thirteenth century Egypt as it was performed by sovereigns, officials, and subjects alike, and, in this context, how can the documentary practices preserved in the Geniza be understood as an instrument to perform sovereignty? This thesis uses death as a case study in the same way that scholars of the medieval Islamic world have studied taxation, administration, and ceremonials to understand sovereignty as it was performed by the state, officials, and subjects. This performance of sovereignty by each implicated actor left a rich documentary trail, some of which survived in the Geniza. By nature of the surviving material, this thesis takes the documents of the Geniza that pertain to death in the Jewish community of Fustat and Cairo. By focusing on material that relates mostly to the Jewish community this thesis does not intend to claim that the Jewish experience was unique or exceptional. In fact, many of the dynamics and developments uncovered in this thesis, especially a tightening of the application of the law, affected all subjects of the polity, including Muslims. The Jewish material simply offers the clearest and richest way to address the question of sovereignty. |
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