宝典抑或废纸?——中世纪埃及与叙利亚社会经济史的文书史料

Sacred Treasure or Paper Trash?——Documentary Sources of Social-Economic History of Medieval Egypt and Syria

在中世纪近东伊斯兰史研究中,阿拉伯文书是丰富而不可或缺的辅助史料,但如何有效地利用其中的非叙事材料——档案文书——一向是个难题。不仅档案文书零落稀少,而且大多尚未整理出版。本文对中世纪阿拉伯文档案文书的收藏、出版和研究现状做一综述。先列举了目前所知的中世纪阿拉伯文书史料有哪些,再评述了利用这类史料来阐明伊斯兰近东社会经济史的代表性学术著作,最后简述了这些史料给历史学家带来的机遇和挑战。

In the studies of medieval Islamic history, the Arabic documents constitute a rich and indispensable ancillary source, but how to make full use of the archival documents,i. e. the non-narrative materials,remains a thorny question. Not only are archival documents sparse and scattered,but most have not yet been published as well. This paper reviews the collections, publications and current researches with regard to these documents. It surveys the medieval Arabic documentary sources available to scholars, reviews the works using these sources to illuminate social-economic history of the Islamic Near East,and concludes with an observation on some of the opportunities and challenges these sources pose for historians.