Al-Jabartī and the Frankish Archaeologists

• Published in: International journal of Middle East studies Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 229 - 236
• Main Author: Bosworth, C. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01-04-1977
• Subjects: Ancient Egypt; Archaeology; Consuls; Curiosity; Egyptology; Granite; Hieroglyphics; Muslims; Slaves; Statues
• ISSN: 0020-7438; 1471-6380
• DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800026969

For the Muslims, ancient Egypt was a land of mystery and magic. The monuments of Pharaonic Egypt attested a once-flourishing civilization, and the sheer scale of so many of these remains seemed to point either to a despotic monarchy which could command the services of multitudes of slaves to build the pyramids or to carve the rock temples of Upper Egypt (this being the rationalistic explanation put forward by, e.g., Ibn Khaldūn), or else to the existence of a priestly tradition of esoteric wisdom and the ability to command supernatural powers (which Ibn Khaldūn fully admitted elsewhere in his Prolegomena). This last view had behind it the sanction of the Qur'ān, above all, in regard to the story of Moses’ throwing down his staff before Pharaoh and its metamorphosis into a serpent, and his subsequent contest in magic with the Egyptian sorcerers (Qur'ān, 7, 101–23/103–26); these events naturally lent themselves to much fascinating embellishment by the qussās or popular storytellers.