Missions

- assisting the project leaders in the development and maintenance of a textual database
- editing, translating and studying Arabic papyri
- disseminating knowledge to a general audience

Activités

The candidate will be hired as part of the Emergences project "The archives of a 9th century Egyptian merchant in the heart of Paris. Study of a documentary and literary ensemble witnessing a changing society (ArchiMEg)", generously funded by the City of Paris. The project proposes the study of the archives, preserved in the Louvre Museum, of an Arab merchant who lived in the rich Egyptian province of Fayyum in the 9th century, a prosperous period both intellectually and economically for the Nile Valley. With more than two hundred and fifty documents, written on papyrus, it is one of the richest archival collections to have come down to us from medieval Egypt. In addition to numerous letters, the archive contains legal documents, accounts, literary texts and prayers that the merchant wrote down as a sign of piety. These documents provide information on many aspects of the economic and social life of medieval Egypt; they also allow us to delve into the daily life of this family, and to learn about its sorrows, joys, fears and aspirations, as well as the intellectual and religious atmosphere in which it was immersed. The aim of the project is twofold: 1) to make these archives accessible by proposing an edition, a translation and a commentary; 2) to propose a synthesis of the life of this merchant and the historical, socio-economic and cultural context in which it is situated. The project also has a heritage and cultural vocation in that it will enhance an exceptional and rare French heritage and will allow the Parisian and international public to discover, through the life of a notable Egyptian, an Egyptian society where Christians and Muslims lived together peacefully. Beyond a simple study of the history of an individual, this project intends to contribute to a better understanding of the first centuries of Muslim Egypt, in their political, economic and social dimensions. Through this study, we hope to promote the knowledge of the history of Islam in the Middle Ages among the general public, but also to show its richness and diversity, and thereby combat a certain religious fundamentalism that denies the existence of any form of diversity in medieval and contemporary Islam, preferring to find its references in an idealized and fantasized faith of origins.
The person recruited will assist the project leaders Naïm Vanthieghem (IRHT-CNRS) and Mathieu Tillier (Sorbonne University) in the setting up and feeding of a textual database including all the edited or unpublished papyri of the merchants' archives. He/She will also assist the project leaders in the editing, translating and studying part of the unpublished corpus of the so-called Fayum cloth merchants' archives. Her/his scientific work will lead to the publication of a volume of unpublished papyri, edited in collaboration with the project leaders. The candidate will also be expected to participate in conferences to present the project and to give a vulgarization conference to make these archives known to the Parisian public.

Compétences

1. Skills / knowledge

-Thorough knowledge of Arabic, especially medieval Arabic.
- Good knowledge of medieval Egyptian history, preferably the history of Abbasid Egypt.
- Knowledge of written and spoken French is an asset; the successful candidate will in any case be required to commit to taking French classes if he/she does not have a minimum command of the language.
- Thorough knowledge of written and spoken English (level B2: ability to correspond, read technical documentation, make oral presentations in English).
- Knowledge in the field of manuscripts and the history of ancient libraries is an asset.
- Experience in papyrology, codicology or epigraphy is an asset.
- Knowledge of basic office tools, in particular Excell, is essential; experience with File Maker Pro is an asset

2. Skills

- Good ability to decipher and translate handwritten texts
- Good ability to interpret and comment on unpublished texts
- Ability to synthesise the content of sources

3. Skills

- Taste for teamwork
- Curiosity
- Ability to work in an international scientific environment
- Ability to work independently
- Ability to work in coordination between teams
- Sense of pedagogy and synthesis

Contexte de travail

The Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (IRHT) is a research unit of the CNRS (UPR 841). Founded in 1937, the laboratory is dedicated to fundamental research on ancient and medieval manuscripts as well as on ancient prints. The history of texts written in the main cultural languages of the Mediterranean region - Latin, Romance languages, Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, Syriac and Arabic - is considered in all its aspects: the materiality of writing, writing and decoration, textual content, iconography, distribution and reception. From the beginning, the IRHT has also been a documentary centre with a film and photo library which today contains reproductions of manuscripts from all over the world and a large library (editions of texts, specialised works, reviews). Over the years, it has also produced numerous files and notes on medieval manuscripts and the transmission of texts.
The IRHT has an international reputation and brings together high-level specialists in all fields of the scholarly history of writing, books, libraries, texts and the art of illumination. Their philological, lexicographical, historical, palaeographical and codicological investigations aim to date and locate manuscripts, identify and establish the texts they contain, prepare critical editions of the texts and reconstruct the history of their production, circulation, audience and use from Antiquity to the early Renaissance. They give rise to the production of numerous working tools available to all researchers.
The candidate will be placed under the responsibility of Naïm Vanthieghem and will work within the teams of the Arabic section and the papyrology section, comprising ten researchers and two engineers.

Contraintes et risques

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Informations complémentaires

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