Formal and informal Patronage among Jews in the Islamic East: evidence from the Cairo Geniza
Marina Rustow
This paper investigates the political culture of Islamic East under Fatimid and Buwayhid rule (tenth-twelfth centuries) via relationships between patrons, clients, proteges, partners. The main body evidence I utilize are letters petitions from Cairo Geniza that employ same specialized vocabulary patron-client one finds in Arabic histories period: idioms referring to exchange benefit, reciprocal service, protection, oversight, patronage, loyalty. letters, written without regard for posterity, suggest these were used well beyond courts understood deployed by men women, literate illiterate, important inconsequential. Yet use certain terms Judaeo-Arabic also differs their Arabic: some reflect devaluation over time, while others hardened into formulaic phrases. These differences forms patronage did not thrive hothouse court; viewed another perspective, they even outside courtly literature, can retrieve fossils older describe leaders followers as among people more nearly equal station. A society’s social metaphors reveals something what its members value, choose retain perpetuate past, how function moments crisis, successfully rulers have managed convince them legitimacy order. Conversely, was a technique allowed Jews conduct business, engage politics communal regulation, amass variety spheres, including rabbinic academies who proffered construction Judaism became hegemonic course Middle Ages.
Al-qantara