[en] Various manuals and collections of letters composed by prominent actors of the Mamluk state chancery have been preserved. At the same time, some biographies of the sultans written by historians who were active at the state chancery also include official documents. Several of these sources were edited during the last century, thus contributing to improve our knowledge of the way the Mamluk chancery worked and which types of documents it issued. However, the editing process has not always taken into account the material and visual elements that the copyists of these texts seemed to reproduce faithfully. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, il will review the various material and visual elements, together with other physical details provided by the authors, found in a wide range of manuscripts. Thanks to this analysis, it will be shown how the copies of these texts can help us better understand the significance of these physical elements. Second, it will demonstrate that even though these are only copies of official texts, some of them can be regarded as faithful to the original when it has been preserved, thus granting to these works a historical value.
Research Center/Unit :
Transitions - Transitions (Département de recherches sur le Moyen Âge tardif & la première Modernité) - ULiège
Disciplines :
Classical & oriental studies
Speaker :
Bauden, Frédéric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de l'antiquité > Langue arabe et études islamiques - Histoire de l'art musulman ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Transitions - Unité de recherches sur le Moyen Âge et la première Modernité
Language :
English
Title :
How and Why It Matters: Material, Visual, and Descriptive Elements in Works Containing Copies of Documents from the Mamluk Period
Publication date :
09 April 2024
Event name :
Manuscripts with Sample Letters
Event organizer :
Durand-Guédy, David
Event place :
Hambourg, Germany
Event date :
8-9 avril 2024
By request :
Yes
Audience :
International
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
References of the abstract :
Various manuals and collections of letters composed by prominent actors of the Mamluk state chancery have been preserved. At the same time, some biographies of the sultans written by historians who were active at the state chancery also include official documents. Several of these sources were edited during the last century, thus contributing to improve our knowledge of the way the Mamluk chancery worked and which types of documents it issued. However, the editing process has not always taken into account the material and visual elements that the copyists of these texts seemed to reproduce faithfully. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, il will review the various material and visual elements, together with other physical details provided by the authors, found in a wide range of manuscripts. Thanks to this analysis, it will be shown how the copies of these texts can help us better understand the significance of these physical elements. Second, it will demonstrate that even though these are only copies of official texts, some of them can be regarded as faithful to the original when it has been preserved, thus granting to these works a historical value.
