Weights and measures of Muslim Egypt. Glass weights and stamps from the National and University Library of Strasbourg: Umayyads, Abassids, Tulunids and various undetermined figures.
College of France| N° d'inventaire | 22416 |
| Format | 21 x 27.5 |
| Détails | 288 p., paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2020 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782722605183 |
Muslim administrators in Syria, Palestine, and especially Egypt used inscribed (more precisely, stamped) glass objects, probably to ensure the honesty of commercial transactions and perhaps to regulate them. These were weights bearing the denominations dinar, dirham, and fals (here called "monetary standards"), weights marked with mass names (ra?l, wuqiyya, etc.), and hot-fixed pellets at the mouth of glass flasks that indicated the volume, often the nature of the contents, sometimes its price. A more or less developed formula gave the name of the administrative authorities (market officials, director of finances of Egypt, caliph) who ordered their manufacture, in application of a Quranic injunction on equity and justice. It allows us to date many of these objects. This material informs us about the most commonly sold basic necessities in the souks of Egypt and gives a very vivid picture of retail trade. It poses many problems, first of all of reading, but also of concordance between the systems of glass weights, metallic currencies, denominations and prices which, naturally, varied over the centuries. No ancient text exists which allows to resolve them. The National and University Library of Strasbourg has one of the most important collections of stamped glass in the world: 1213 objects, very largely Egyptian. This work gives a detailed and illustrated description of the 201 oldest objects (Umayyad, Abbasid and Tulunid periods), accompanied by references to all publications of identical or similar objects (there are many unpublished). It includes an introduction dealing with all the conjectures made on the nature of these objects, their use, the nature of the products whose name is read on the stamps, the correspondences between systems of weights, currencies, prices, and the policy of the administrative authorities who inscribed their names on the weights and measures.
Muslim administrators in Syria, Palestine, and especially Egypt used inscribed (more precisely, stamped) glass objects, probably to ensure the honesty of commercial transactions and perhaps to regulate them. These were weights bearing the denominations dinar, dirham, and fals (here called "monetary standards"), weights marked with mass names (ra?l, wuqiyya, etc.), and hot-fixed pellets at the mouth of glass flasks that indicated the volume, often the nature of the contents, sometimes its price. A more or less developed formula gave the name of the administrative authorities (market officials, director of finances of Egypt, caliph) who ordered their manufacture, in application of a Quranic injunction on equity and justice. It allows us to date many of these objects. This material informs us about the most commonly sold basic necessities in the souks of Egypt and gives a very vivid picture of retail trade. It poses many problems, first of all of reading, but also of concordance between the systems of glass weights, metallic currencies, denominations and prices which, naturally, varied over the centuries. No ancient text exists which allows to resolve them. The National and University Library of Strasbourg has one of the most important collections of stamped glass in the world: 1213 objects, very largely Egyptian. This work gives a detailed and illustrated description of the 201 oldest objects (Umayyad, Abbasid and Tulunid periods), accompanied by references to all publications of identical or similar objects (there are many unpublished). It includes an introduction dealing with all the conjectures made on the nature of these objects, their use, the nature of the products whose name is read on the stamps, the correspondences between systems of weights, currencies, prices, and the policy of the administrative authorities who inscribed their names on the weights and measures.