Manage et separation a Damas au moyen age: Un corpus de 62 documents juridiques inedits entre 337/948 et 698/1299.

Rapoport, Yossef

Manage et separation a Damas au moyen age: Un corpus de 62 documents juridiques inedits entre 337/948 et 698/1299. Edited by Jean-Michel Mouton, Dominique Sourdel, and Janine Sourdel-Thomine. Documents relatifs a l'histoire des Croisades, vol. 21. Paris: LAcademie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2013. Pp. 327, illus. 40 [euro] (paper).

The edition and translation of the sixty-two documents in this volume are a turning point in the study of the institution of marriage in the Islamic world. It is the first time that such a large corpus of medieval marriage contracts and divorce deeds has been published, surpassing by far any of the scattered, piecemeal publications of marriage and divorce deeds that were previously our sole window to the legal praxis of family life in the Middle Ages.

This corpus of documents originated in a Geniza-type depository kept in the Grand Mosque of Damascus during the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods, which was salvaged and transferred to Istanbul in 1893. The volume under review follows the editions of pilgrimage certificates, Quranic codices, and legal documents from this collection, published since the 1960s and led by two of the co-authors, Dominique Sourdel and Janine Sourdel-Thomine.

The first part of the volume offers an analysis of the legal formulae and the social setting, while the second part contains an edition and translation, followed by reproductions of all sixty-two documents. These comprise mainly marriage contracts and divorce deeds, but also related documents such as petitions and fatwas issued at the request of litigants.

The documents hammer home the frequency of divorce in the medieval era--half of the marriage contracts have traces of a subsequent separation, in some cases after more than ten years of marriage (p. 37). Polygamy, on the other hand, is not directly attested, although a time-limited stipulation against it was attached to one late Ayyubid contract. The division of the marriage gift (sadaq) into immediate and deferred portions is standard from the Fatimid period, although not found in the single 'Abbasid-era document (dating 337/948). The further division of the marriage gift into yearly installments is found only in a minority of documents, apparently of Egyptian influence.

A distinctive aspect of the marriage contracts is the lingering preponderance of parchment, which retained its prestige as the appropriate material for such documents, despite the general move to writing on paper, until the seventh/thirteenth century. The practice of tearing up marriage contracts at the time of divorce also gradually takes form in this period. In terms of formulae, the Ayyubid-era contracts show more juristic formalities, such as the identification of the spouses by their physical features and the requirement of written proof that the bride is free to marry.

One of the notable achievements of this volume is its sketch of the development of Damascene society based on the marriage contracts. In the first period under study, up until the late fifth/eleventh century, the highest marriage gifts, in cash, property, and livestock, were paid among an aristocracy of Arab lineage that resided in Damascus but held its wealth in the countryside. These lineages mostly disappear from the records in the following century, when a new middle class of urban merchants and craftsmen appears (p. 54). These merchants and artisans intermarry, settling modest marriage gifts of 10-20 gold coins. In contrast, the religious and military elites of the late Fatimid and Ayyubid periods, so prominent in the biographical dictionaries, are hardly present in the documents (p. 57).

The authors are also able to draw conclusions about the place of Damascus in a regional network of immigration and trade. Migrants come from both the eastern and western parts of the Islamic world, with the presence of many migrants from North Africa and Egypt an unexpected feature. The North African influence in the Fatimid period is evident also in the evolution of the currency, which is sometimes the Sicilian ruba'i or even the Norman due. Other contracts specify the currencies of Tyre, Tripoli, or Cairo, demonstrating that regional trade drew these cities closely together.

The edition and translation of the documents, which are mostly incomplete and often hardly legible, deserve much praise. Particularly impressive is the authors' ability to place the documents in the context of medieval Damascus, using Ibn 'Asakiris history to identify local markets and individual legal professionals. On the other hand, there is little or no reference to the medieval notarial manuals, beginning with al-Tahawi, which contain many relevant model deeds. A more systematic use of this type of sources could yield in the future more secure readings for some of the more illegible documents.

The individual documents contain a wealth of previously undocumented formulae and surprising information on practices of marriage and divorce, including marriages in which the bride is not represented by a legal guardian (nos. 10, 17), the financial details of divorce settlements (nos. 13, 51), receipt for payments of parts of the marriage gift (nos. 11, 24, 48, 49), and a revocation of a previous divorce (no. 27).

I take the opportunity of this review to offer alternative interpretations of a number of documents, without wanting to detract from the achievement of the authors. I believe the authors are wrong in their interpretation of documents nos. 20 and 29, when they translate jariya as an under-aged girl; in the context of the formula zaw-jatahu al-jariya ft 'aqd nikahihi, however, the meaning is "his wife, who is currently under a contract of marriage to him." Also, in their identification of three documents of previously unrecorded type (nos. 6B, 7B, 25) that refer to a process of arbitration after a divorce, the authors interpret these documents as divorce deeds, but I believe they are remarriages following reconciliation. A simple divorce deed does not require any reference to arbitration, and the final part of the document refers to new financial liabilities of the husband, which likely come from a renewal of the marriage contract.

The provenance, date, and features of the documents under study are remarkably similar to the Cairo Geniza, and there is scope here for a fascinating comparative study. A letter from a husband to his wife, probably from the early Ayyubid period (p. 65), sheds intriguing light on conjugal intimacy. All in all--unavoidable carpings about the interpretation and readings of individual documents aside--by bringing these documents into light the authors have opened the way to new understandings of the institution of marriage in the medieval Middle East.

Yossef Rapoport

Queen Mary, University of London