出版社：Middle East Documentation Center (MEDOC), University of Chicago
摘要：No one would dispute Humphreys's assertion about effective use of surviving texts. But when one considers these admittedly copious sources, the nature of exactly what was preserved does qualify the kind of inquiry a researcher may undertake. It is now widely recognized that the discovery, and subsequent analysis, of the Cairo Geniza documents during the first half of the twentieth century enabled students of the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods to ask questions previously considered unanswerable—beyond exceedingly broad conjecture.2 I have chosen to compare waqf documents with the Geniza material because I am convinced that the former play a role at least as significant for the Mamluk period as the Geniza documents have done for the eras preceding it.
