The vaste majority of pre-modern Egypt was rural. Yet, literary evidence takes almost completely an urban point of view and has limited interest in rural conditions of life. Documentary evidence is slightly different: in this webclass, we will read tax registers of individual peasants and their crop, passports issued to local workmen, leases of different types of irrigated land, petitions to protect villages from tax farmers and their soldiers, etc. We will try to understand the world of peasants as they had to cope with a harsh tax administration and were part of a complex economical framework.

This is an on-line webclass. We will mostly read published Arabic documents. A scan of the document to be discussed will be sent to you in advance. Communication will be in English.