DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt, 1907-8
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12423#0064
54
Peogeess of Egyptology.
Sharik, and Basilius, the Greek governor of the pagarchy of Aphrodito,
together with a mass of official accounts. Aphrodito is the former kco/jlt/
'A^jOoSm??, at one time forming part of the Antaeopolite nome, but now
chief town of a pagarchy; and Mr. Bell shows good reason for believing,
not merely that the pagarchy was in the Arab period the unit of adminis-
tration, but that the new pagarchies were practically equivalent to the
old nomes, the latter term having dropped out of use. The correspondence
(which, with the Coptic documents forming part of it, will be published in
the fourth volume of the British Museum Catalogue) deals with the
collection of taxes, the supply of recruits, provisions, and stores for the
annual raids of the Moslem fleets, the search for fugitives from the various
pagarchies (presumably the result of the Arab conquest) and their return
to their own districts, and the supply of workmen and materials for
buildings at Fustat (Cairo), Damascus, and Jerusalem. The series of
documents (over 200 in number) is very extensive, and will provide much
material of interest for students of Egyptian and Moslem history. In a
review of Bell's article, Prof. Becker publishes22a a Berlin papyrus
containing a similar official order (ivrarycov) addressed by Kurrah to the
inhabitants of Antinoopolis.
In connection with this subject, mention may be made of Prof. Kara-
bacek's elaborate study 23 of the Arabic protocols, of which several new
examples, to be published hereafter, are contained in the Aphrodito Papyri.
As is well known, Karabacek maintains that the protocols, which at first
sight look like mere agglomerations of upright strokes and curves (like the
first lines of mediaeval papal bulls), are not merely bilingual, as generally
believed, but trilingual, certain groups of strokes, which appear more than
usually meaningless, being really Latin versions of the Arabic formula.
This opinion has been directly challenged by Prof. C. H. Becker; and
Karabacek's present article is a full statement and defence of his position.
As the controversy will be continued before long, not only by Becker but
by Mr. Bell (who will be able to adduce the evidence of the Aphrodito
Papyri), it would be premature to examine it here.
The papyri of the British Museum are not the whole of the find of Kom
Ishgau. A large number of rolls were found by M. Lefebvre at the same
time as the Menander, and others were obtained by the authorities of the
Department of Antiquities at other times. In all, there are now at Cairo
about 250 documents from this site. These, however, are all of the Byzan-
tine period, and chiefly of the reign of Justinian. M. Jean Maspero lias
published ten of them,24 and promises further publications in the future.
Three of these throw much light on the history of Aphrodite. The first is
Peogeess of Egyptology.
Sharik, and Basilius, the Greek governor of the pagarchy of Aphrodito,
together with a mass of official accounts. Aphrodito is the former kco/jlt/
'A^jOoSm??, at one time forming part of the Antaeopolite nome, but now
chief town of a pagarchy; and Mr. Bell shows good reason for believing,
not merely that the pagarchy was in the Arab period the unit of adminis-
tration, but that the new pagarchies were practically equivalent to the
old nomes, the latter term having dropped out of use. The correspondence
(which, with the Coptic documents forming part of it, will be published in
the fourth volume of the British Museum Catalogue) deals with the
collection of taxes, the supply of recruits, provisions, and stores for the
annual raids of the Moslem fleets, the search for fugitives from the various
pagarchies (presumably the result of the Arab conquest) and their return
to their own districts, and the supply of workmen and materials for
buildings at Fustat (Cairo), Damascus, and Jerusalem. The series of
documents (over 200 in number) is very extensive, and will provide much
material of interest for students of Egyptian and Moslem history. In a
review of Bell's article, Prof. Becker publishes22a a Berlin papyrus
containing a similar official order (ivrarycov) addressed by Kurrah to the
inhabitants of Antinoopolis.
In connection with this subject, mention may be made of Prof. Kara-
bacek's elaborate study 23 of the Arabic protocols, of which several new
examples, to be published hereafter, are contained in the Aphrodito Papyri.
As is well known, Karabacek maintains that the protocols, which at first
sight look like mere agglomerations of upright strokes and curves (like the
first lines of mediaeval papal bulls), are not merely bilingual, as generally
believed, but trilingual, certain groups of strokes, which appear more than
usually meaningless, being really Latin versions of the Arabic formula.
This opinion has been directly challenged by Prof. C. H. Becker; and
Karabacek's present article is a full statement and defence of his position.
As the controversy will be continued before long, not only by Becker but
by Mr. Bell (who will be able to adduce the evidence of the Aphrodito
Papyri), it would be premature to examine it here.
The papyri of the British Museum are not the whole of the find of Kom
Ishgau. A large number of rolls were found by M. Lefebvre at the same
time as the Menander, and others were obtained by the authorities of the
Department of Antiquities at other times. In all, there are now at Cairo
about 250 documents from this site. These, however, are all of the Byzan-
tine period, and chiefly of the reign of Justinian. M. Jean Maspero lias
published ten of them,24 and promises further publications in the future.
Three of these throw much light on the history of Aphrodite. The first is