Author: Geoffrey Khan

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13:

The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art is a growing private collection of over 15,000 objects, built up over the last 16 years in London. This volume is the first in an important new academic series, complementary to the main catalogue of the collection. It consists of a detailed study of a group of early Arabic papyri, dating mainly from the eighth to tenth centuries A.D. Most are from Egypt, but the collection also includes the only known papyrus to survive from Iraq. The texts range from tax and legal matters, to business accounts and personal correspondence. Each document is transcribed and translated, and there are copious notes on historical linguistic, and paleographic issues. These documents reflect directly the realities of life in the first centuries of the Islamic era.