The Persian Documents from al-Ḥaram al-SharīfNew project affiliated with CSMC

19 August 2021, by Webmaster

Photo: Andrew Shiva

New DFG project at CSMC: ‘The Persian Documents from al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Jerusalem, 1300-1353’ examines the textual and archival practices of the eastern medieval Islamic world.

From Northwest Iran in the 14th century come 76 documents that – by what route exactly is unclear – are now in the holdings of the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem. Written mainly in Persian, these legal and administrative documents are of outstanding historical significance to our understanding of the textual and archival practices of the eastern regions of the medieval Islamic world. To examine how power is inscribed onto the documents through the selective use of language and script is the aim of the new project ‘The Persian Documents from al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Jerusalem, 1300-1353’. It will shed light on an important rupture in the medieval Islamic east: how legal and administrative formulae in Arabic adapted to and became transformed through the introduction of new Persian formulae.

The project, which started on 1 August and will run for three years, is funded by the DFG. Its Principal Investigator is Zahir Bhalloo. For a more detailed description of the contents and goals of this project, please visit our ‘Current Projects’ section.