From Tuscany to Egypt: Eighteenth Century Arabic Letters in the Prize Paper Collections

The Prize Paper Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain more than fifty-five Arabic letters and another two dozen accounts and other documents, which were seized in 1759 by British privateers as part of the loot on a Tuscan ship, set out from Livorno towards Alexandria. Virtually...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Wagner, Esther-Miriam 1975- (Auteur) ; Ahmed, Mohamed A. H. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: [2017]
Dans: Journal of Semitic studies
Année: 2017, Volume: 62, Numéro: 2, Pages: 389-412
Classifications IxTheo:AG Vie religieuse
BJ Islam
CC Christianisme et religions non-chrétiennes; relations interreligieuses
KAH Époque moderne
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Maison d'édition)
Volltext (doi)
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Résumé:The Prize Paper Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain more than fifty-five Arabic letters and another two dozen accounts and other documents, which were seized in 1759 by British privateers as part of the loot on a Tuscan ship, set out from Livorno towards Alexandria. Virtually untouched since that time, they present a most exciting source of documentary Ottoman Arabic. The letters were written by Christian merchants trading in the Mediterranean and by Christian clergy in Rome to their co-religionists in Egypt and Turkey. This article presents an introduction to the Arabic Prize Papers, a short linguistic analysis of a preliminary corpus of eleven letters, the edition and translation of three sample letters. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic divergence between those letters written by merchants and those composed by church dignitaries, as well as to the sociolinguistic variation found in specific writers.
ISSN:1477-8556
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgx030