SMC 44

Situating the history of genealogy in the ambit of manuscript studies, this volume explores how handwriting practices influenced the development of genealogies. It shows how lineages used handwritten documents in constructing and presenting their identity both to the outside world and to themselves. Genealogical handwriting is practiced in many manuscript cultures; this volume is the first to juxtapose studies from a wide variety of such cultures, ranging from East Asia, to West and Central Asia, to Europe. As the present contributions discuss in depth, tracing one’s lineage usually required taking note of personal histories, biographies and relationships; the chapters explore the many different reasons that compelled both individuals and institutions to do just this, and highlight the various contexts in which genealogy-writing occurred. Taking a material-oriented approach to handwriting practices in the study of genealogies can reveal the challenges implicated in producing such written artefacts, highlighting the enormous effort required in cultivating lineage-related knowledge. Seen from the view of manuscript studies, genealogies emerge as invaluable, yet also highly fragile forms of cultural capital.

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FrontmatterI

ContentsV

History of Genealogy and Manuscript Studies: new Perspectives for a Crosscultural and Trans-epochal Approach1
Markus Friedrich

WEST AND CENTRAL ASIA

A Compendium of Sayyid/Sharīf Genealogy in Diagrammatic Format from the Late Tenth Century31
Kazuo Morimoto

The King's Two Lineages: Esau, Jacob, and the Ottoman Mythical Imagination int he Subhatu'l-Ahbar63
Evrim Binbaş

Narratives of Conquest and Genealogies of Custody among the Sacred Families of Central Asia: Manuscript Charters of Ancestral Islamization and Hereditary Privilige97
Devin DeWeese

EAST ASIA

Distinguishing Pearls from Fish Eyes: The Branch Lineage Genealogies of the Descendants of Confucius123
Christopher S. Agnew

Chinese Genealogies and Tables of Generations: A Few Examples from Huizhou147
Michela Bussotti

Copying Is Editing: Handwritten Copies of Printed Genealogies in Late Imperial China, 1450–1900195
Xin Yu

Genealogical Diagrams in Chan/Zen Buddhism: Sources, Production, and Functions219
Steffen Döll

EUROPE AND AMERICAS

The Fabrication of Lineage: Genealogical Manuscripts and the Administration of the Spanish Empire (Fifteenth–Eigteenth Century)269
Vitus Huber

Data Organisation in two Burgeois Genealogies from Eigteenth and Nineteenth-century Basel299
Fiona Vicent

Contributors327

Indices329