A collected group
The OPenn record for Islamic MSS Third Series 584e describes a Princeton group of 41 documents from Egypt associated with the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. The collection was assembled by George Anastase Michaelides. Its supplied title, Letters and documents, 1106–1497, already signals a range of materials rather than a single work.
The catalogue distinguishes individual items and records later wrappers and descriptive sheets. It also identifies modern transcriptions for some documents. The source therefore presents several layers: the historical document, the later handling of it and the catalogue’s account of both.
When descriptions disagree
One of the striking features of the record is its preservation of earlier descriptions that differ from the catalogue’s own account of an item. A wrapper may describe a marriage-related act where the catalogue identifies a receipt, or give a date that the catalogue treats differently. The reader should retain those attributions rather than combine them into one apparently certain description.
This is evidence about the history of collecting and interpretation. It can also affect a legal historian’s sample. A search based on an earlier title might place a document in a different group from a search based on its later identification. The classification needs to be checked against the item and the responsible description.
The document needs its identifiers
The Arabic Papyrology Database’s search fields provide a useful comparison for how documentary evidence is identified through edition, inventory number and kind. Those identifiers are more durable research tools than a short English label alone, especially when an item has been described more than once.
An article using this Princeton group should identify the collection and individual item, state which description it follows and give the image or edition consulted. It can then distinguish a historical transaction from a collector’s account of it. Keeping that distinction visible does justice to the documentary evidence and explains how a modern reader arrived at the interpretation being proposed.
References
- OPenn: Islamic MSS Third Series 584e — Letters and documents
Institutional item-level catalogue and images for a group of documentary fragments dated 1106–1497.
- Arabic Papyrology Database: document search
Search by edition, inventory number, kind, material, place and date. Metadata-only entries and transcribed texts have different coverage.
Filed under Sources & methods. Sources and corrections.