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...
| Authors: | ; |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2017]
|
| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 62, Issue: 2, Pages: 389-412 |
| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | 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 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgx030 |