Latest news with #BethanyWalker
Jordan Times
22-05-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Scholar highlights Ayyubid legacy, challenges of distinguishing it from Mamluk period
The Ayyubid castle of Ajloun, located in the northwestern part of Jordan, overlooking the Jordan Valley (Photo courtesy of ACOR) AMMAN — For Professor Bethany Walker from Bonn University, it is a true challenge to differentiate some pottery objects whether they belong to Ayyubid (1171-1260) or Mamluk (1250-1517) period. Walker wants to separate two periods that are often called Ayyubit-Mamluk and belong to Middle Islamic era. "Ayyubid period was much shorter than Mamluk period," Walker said during the lecture " Jordan in the Ayyubid Age" held at the Department of Antiquities of Jordan on Wednesday, adding that if one excavates on the Mamluk site they will not find many remains older than the Mamluk period. Mamluk's powerful visual presence in Jordan also underlines Ayyubid Sultanate contribution, Walker continued, adding that Mamluks re-used Ayyubid buildings. "Vernacular buildings didn't change much from 12th until early 20th century in Jordan," Walker said, noting that to differentiate between these two periods became a challenge. The Ayyubids laid foundation for administrative buildings, fortresses and castles, as well as way stations for pilgrims and store houses for agricultural produce. They invested in network of roads and castles, reviving the world economy. One of the achievements of the Ayyubids was the beginning of the sugar industry in Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea area, where the sugar technology was brought from the Indian Subcontinent (sugar canes). "The major achievement of the Ayyubids in Jordan was economic," Walker stressed, adding that agricultural sector flourished during their reign. Rural area was economically stimulated to produce certain types of crops during that period. "The most active of the Ayyubid rulers was AlMu'azzam (1218-1227) who ruled from Damascus," Walker said, noting that in the early decades of the 13th century Karak became a scientific and educational centre. However, there are no architectural traces of these activities as no remains of madrasas and hospitals survived to our days. Al Mu'azzam built villages and the state stimulated different types of migrations to urban and rural centres. Nasser Dawoud in 1244/1245 renovate the Karak Castle, adding that palatine halls at Karak and Shobal castles represent the Ayyubid architecture. Regarding the Ayyubid bathhouse, Walker said:" It's relatively small, with three to four rooms." The Mamluks would tear down old, decrepit buildings and reuse the material for new structures, and that is one of the reasons why it is often difficult to distinguish which building belonged to the Ayyubid and which to the Mamluk period. "In some textual documentation there is evidence of these demolitions, like in chronicles, where villages around the Shobak Castle are mentioned. Here we have accounts what still functions and what is in ruins," Walker said, adding that ruins had a commercial value as a building material.
Jordan Times
20-04-2025
- General
- Jordan Times
Scholar calls for ‘deeper' use of Ottoman tax registers in Mamluk archaeology
AMMAN — The archaeology of the Mamluk period, as practiced today, is a form of historical archaeology heavily informed by anthropological models, noted an American professor. One methodological development of the last decade has been in the engagement with the written record. The combination of written and material sources is the greatest challenge of any archaeology of historical periods, particularly so with the Mamluk period, which produced a wealth of texts, Professor Bethany Walker said, adding that many excavations and survey reports now include an explanation, however brief, of how historical sources are used. There has been a very gradual shift from dependence on texts for interpreting archaeological data to creating a dialogue between the two in ways that inform project design, the professor said. Because written sources and archaeological data answer different sets of questions about human behaviour and can differ in chronological scale of inquiry, they can and should be used in tandem to write a multi-faceted history of Mamluk societies, Walker explained. 'In short, one data set can inform the other. the challenge is to decide which kinds of sources are most appropriate to the subject at hand and to write a coherent, analytical narrative that uses them in complement with one another," Walker highlighted. The professor added that archaeologists of the Mamluk period ('Middle Islamic' period in archaeological terminology) have generally relied on written sources that are geographically and chronologically useful and readily available in print form (and frequently translated into European languages). Narrative sources (primarily chronicles and geographies) and administrative manuals that help identify sites and provide a historical framework for their physical development. When used responsibly, such sources, in combination with archaeological evidence, can produce a rich narrative of Mamluk history. "What has been largely missing is an engagement with contemporary documentary sources. One notable exception is the early Ottoman tax registers (singular, daftar-imufassal) of the ninth/sixteenth century.' 'During the first century of Ottoman rule in Syria, many elements of the Mamluks' administration in the region were retained, including the general administrative structure, some personnel, and many of the larger landed endowments [awqāf]," Walker underlined. The registers document anticipated income from taxable commodities, though not actual taxes collected, and describe in some detail the status of rural property, whether a settled village (qaryah), a village formerly settled but now abandoned (kharāb), a piece of cultivated land (such as a garden, qiṭʿah), or a tract of cultivated land not associated with a village (mazraʿah). Tax-liable commodities (summer crops, winter crops, livestock, processed agricultural goods and animal by-products such as honey, endowments) are listed along with their estimated revenues, Walker elaborated. Specific references to land tenure and use, along with incidental information, such as how a plot of land was acquired and what its access was to water, are occasionally included. the registers, moreover, are organised according by tax districts, yielding important details on the administrative structure of the region. The registers of 1534, 1538–39, 1551–52 and 1596– 97 are preserved in manuscript form, and from these several segments have been published for Palestine and Jordan. The majority of the publications are in Turkish with Arabic summary and commentary; 11 the most widely cited one, though, is in English. "Unfortunately, these sources have not been used as fully as they could be: The general trend has been to look up an individual site name and determine whether the place was inhabited and its land continued to be cultivated after Ottoman annexation. The registers, however, yield much more important place specific data than this," Walker said. The professor added that the estimated number of households in each location is included and the dhimmīs liable for the jizyah are mentioned in each entry of a qaryah. Although the numbers are not reliable for population statistics, they do reflect the religious composition of villages, a demographic characteristic that is not readily recognisable in the archaeological record. the registers note, though inconsistently, abandoned villages, the location of roads and waterways, and the existence of facilities such as mills. 'In spite of this, their potential for studying environmental and land use has not been realised. Furthermore, because the Ottomans taxed many landed awqāf at a rate of 10 per cent, endowments made during Mamluk rule that were retained as such by the Ottoman state are also named in the registers," Walker underlined. The professor added that in many cases these are the only references we have to these local endowments of grain fields, orchards, and gardens, as they have not been thus far identified in Mamluk-era waqfīyāt or chronicles. They attest to the continued economic viability of agricultural land in the region and provide invaluable data on cropping patterns during the transition from Mamluk to Ottoman rule; the value of this data has been largely overlooked, Walker underlined.
