Scribbles in Hats or the Afterlives of Mediaeval Arabic Documents
Lecture by Tamer el-Leithy
Given at the Dar al Athar Museum in Kuwait, on October 28, 2024
Abstract: In this lecture, el-Leithy will present a set of paper fragments found in an unlikely place: the inside of medieval hats. While many are found in the Vienna National Archive, there is also one at Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah. As most fragments are too small, faded, and inconveniently stitched to allow text reconstruction, we are left with only the curious fact that mediaeval Egyptians used scrap paper inside their hats. But if we see these fragments as objects, we can listen to different material evidence. In this lecture, he will trace patterns within the illegible fragments—and read those against other clues (from a scribe’s exercise-book to an Islamic legal discussion of recycling). In so doing, we hear another story, one about more than the lining of hats.
Tamer el-Leithy is an assistant professor of History, Arabic & Islamic Civilizations at American University in Cairo and a 2023 Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.
Top Image: A scribe’s exercise sheet – Cairo Geniza Collections ENA 3936.7
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