11 October 2018 Lajos Berkes (Humboldt Universität), Greek Was Now a Doomed Language’: How and Why Did Greek Documents Disappear in Islamic Egypt?

Dnia 11 października na seminarium późnoantycznym wystąpi Lajos Berkes (Institut für Christentum und Antike, Theologische Fakultät, Humbold Universität) z referatem pt. ‘Greek Was Now a Doomed Language’: How and Why Did Greek Documents Disappear in Islamic Egypt?

Abstrakt wystąpienia:

After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642, Greek continued to be used for writing documents up to the late 8th, perhaps even early 9th century. Even though its usage became gradually restricted to fiscal contexts, new vocabulary and terminology still show up in the 8th century. At the same time, Coptic and Arabic became step by step more and more important for both the official and the private sphere. In this paper, I will give an overview of the Greek documentation of 7-8th century Egypt with a special focus on the last documents from the Abbasid period. Who were the scribes of the last Greek documents of Islamic Egypt and from which cultural milieu did they come? Why did Greek disappear as an administrative language in Abbasid Egypt?