The Fiscal Rescript of 'Umar II
About: This article is published in Arabica.The article was published on 1955-01-01. It has received 77 citations till now.
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01 Dec 2005
TL;DR: The importance of the Bishop Gregory's extensive writings in the discussions of the formation of Frankish kingdoms, the working of kingship, the roles of aristocrats and bishops, and the limits of Merovingian rule is discussed in this article.
Abstract: From the later third century, Germans whom the literary sources called Franks had joined with other barbarians to challenge Roman rule in Gaul. This chapter acknowledges the importance of the Bishop Gregory's extensive writings in the discussions of the formation of Frankish kingdoms, the working of kingship, the roles of aristocrats and bishops, and the limits of Merovingian rule. The kingdom in north-eastern Gaul was sometimes known simply as 'Francia'. It also came to be known as Austria or Austrasia. Although by the fifth century Orthodox Christianity provided a dominant world-view among the Roman population in Gaul, as the Franks expanded into Gaul they nevertheless retained their pagan cults, and even into the sixth century they continued to worship at pagan shrines, especially in northern Gaul. In the kingdom of Austrasia various combinations of Frankish aristocrats, Roman aristocrats and bishops competed for influence at the royal court.
96 citations
01 Dec 2005
TL;DR: The annona system may have tied shippers into the regular transport of Egyptian grain to the Byzantine capital, but not so tightly as to preclude them from the simultaneous pursuit of private profit as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The biggest player in the sixth- and seventh-century Mediterranean economy was obviously the Byzantine Empire, which alone maintained the means and the motive routinely to encourage the bulk transportation of staple items between regions. Part of the agricultural surplus from the wealthiest of all the lands around the Mediterranean, Egypt, had long been diverted to assure supplies of grain for the imperial capital at Constantinople. The Mediterranean afforded wider opportunities for coastal producers to market their surplus, whether in dealings with the state or independently of it. The annona system may have tied shippers into the regular transport of Egyptian grain to the imperial capital, but not so tightly as to preclude them from the simultaneous pursuit of private profit. At privileged western sites like Rome and Marseilles, or Carthage and Naples, the archaeological evidence suggests that the late antique exchange-network persisted in an etiolated form through to the close of the seventh century.
83 citations
01 Feb 1979
TL;DR: The Egyptian papyri form an invaluable record; they also demonstrate that the written tradition, when it made its appearance in Egypt from the middle of the eighth century onwards, was indebted to an archive going back to the establishment of a regular administration under Arab control as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Arab conquests, which created a great new empire and led to the establishment of Islam as one of the great religions of the world, are one of the traditional landmarks of history. The Egyptian papyri form an invaluable record; they also demonstrate that the written tradition, when it made its appearance in Egypt from the middle of the eighth century onwards, was indebted to an archive going back to the establishment of a regular administration under Arab control. The movement of soldiers, slaves and tribute to and fro along the North African coast from Egypt to Spain had revived the market economy after the lapse into subsistence of the late Roman and Byzantine period. In the ninth century, all the great mosques of Egypt and North Africa which dated from the early days of the conquest were enlarged to their present size, while new ones were founded.
77 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: A livre retrace l'evolution de la judicature and de sa place au sein de l'Etat abbasside, en restituant les dimensions spatiales, temporelles et sociales of l'administration judiciaire, ainsi que the dynamique des relations entre les cadis d'Iraq and le califat.
Abstract: En 132/750, les Abbassides s'emparerent du pouvoir au terme d'un mouvement denoncant l'injustice des Umayyades La reforme de l'appareil judiciaire, contribuant a affermir leur legitimite, fut une des realisations majeures de la nouvelle dynastie La centralisation de la justice, l'uniformisation juridique et l'etroite association des cadis au souverain firent de la judicature un instrument politique essentiel aux yeux du califat Les Abbassides ne pouvaient pourtant prevoir les consequences de cette reforme qui devait, a terme, fragiliser les fondements de leur autorite En diminuant la dependance des cadis vis-a-vis des pouvoirs locaux, ils ouvrirent la voie a de nouvelles revendications Il n'allait plus de soi, desormais, que les cadis tenaient leur autorite judiciaire du calife Ce livre retrace l'evolution de la judicature et de sa place au sein de l'Etat abbasside, en restituant les dimensions spatiales, temporelles et sociales de l'administration judiciaire, ainsi que la dynamique des relations entre les cadis d'Iraq et le califat Lorsque les Abbassides perdirent la realite du pouvoir au profit des Būyides, en 334/945, la judicature etait metamorphosee D'un fonctionnaire au service de son delegant, le cadi etait devenu un magistrat capable de defendre son autonomie judiciaire
69 citations
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: The situation of Italy during the period now often called “late antiquity’ was not always a happy one as mentioned in this paper, the economy was in transition: the number of occupied rural sites began to fall in the third or even the second century, agri deserti were becoming a common feature of the landscape, and towns were losing population.
Abstract: The situation of Italy during the period now often called “late antiquity’ was not always a happy one. The economy was in transition: The number of occupied rural sites began to fall in the third or even the second century, agri deserti were becoming a common feature of the landscape, and towns were losing population. The construction of urban public buildings, one of the distinguishing characteristics of classical civilisation, dried up, and in the early sixth century it was recognised that the population of Rome was much smaller than it had been. As Cassiodorus, a man with long experience in the civil service, wrote: “The vast numbers of the people of the city of Rome in old times are evidenced by the extensive provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as by the wide circuit of their walls, the massive structure of their amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the enormous multitude of mills, which could only have been made for use, not for ornament.’ The role Italy played in the economic life of the Roman Empire diminished, imported African pottery having come to dominate the Italian market as early as the second century, and its political fortunes were similar. While Rome remained for centuries the capital of a mighty empire, there were very few Italian emperors after the first century, and the advent of Constantinople as the “second Rome’ from the time of Constantine early in the fourth century saw the eastern and wealthier portion of the Empire become independent.
65 citations