Date: 15 Tut, 1415 CE
ATTENTION COPTIC CHRISTIANS LIVING IN CAIRO!!!!
Are you considering a career change? Are you tired of the plague and grain shortages in Cairo and the constant violence? Do public executions just not excite you as much as they used to? Are you a shop-keeper who cannot make a living because the sultan ordered the markets to be closed during the construction of the Nile Dam? Have you been conscripted into service building the dam—and you just need to get away from it all?
Maybe you are a Copt who is fed up with being blamed for the deaths of thousands in the city. If the Cairenes are not blaming you for the plague, then they’re blaming you for enforcing the sultan’s unpopular controls on grain supply, or for collecting their taxes. You fear for the safety of your family in the face of the constant riots, and you are tired of being forced to wear distinctive blue turbans and belts. What does it mean to be a Dhimmi—protected person—if you are a scapegoat for everything wrong with society—and you have to pay the jizya tax for the privilege?
You may have even converted to Islam—indeed, thousands of you have, and Coptic Christianity is practically dying out—but society will still not accept you. They call you musalima, a recent convert, and they think that you only converted to gain more power and prestige in the sultan’s bureaucracy. Even if that was your motive for conversion, it failed—the Muslims resent you just as much, if not more than ever before.
In the words of a philosopher born centuries after your death, life in Cairo is “nasty, brutish, and short.” What you need is fresh air, a return to the countryside and your agrarian roots. Go to a place where you can celebrate the cycle of the Nile as your Coptic Christian ancestors have done for centuries—without the scorn of Mamluk sultans who hate the popular festivals.
You are searching for a career that allows you to escape the stress of the city, while still making a living. Imagine: instead of having your wife trampled to death outside of a bakery as she desperately tried to secure a few loaves of bread to feed your family—you grow your own food in the convenience of your home!
That’s right: there are so many benefits to joining the ranks of the fallahun, the peasants. A move to Upper Egypt may be just what the doctor ordered!
The attached anachronistic Power Point Presentation gives you an idea of the structure of your year. Yes, there is a lot of work, but there are also many festivals! And the work is outdoors, in the beautiful sunlight! Best of all, aside from requiring occasional taxes, the sultanate leaves you alone!
If you are interested in making the best career move of your life, please contact Amir Mohammad Sahib al-Ardh ASAP! This is a limited opportunity that you do NOT want to miss out on!
Disclaimer: The preceding letter was a scam, written by a fictional amir, or landowner in a rural village. His goal was to get as many peasants in the countryside paying exorbitant rent to him as possible.
Despite the Amir’s claims, the plague is taking an even more devastating toll on the rural community than the urban community.
The irrigation system has been collapsing ever since the famine of 1404; as farmers die, their land ceases producing revenue, and the landlords do not bother using the money they are collecting to repair the irrigation system. Most farmers can barely reap a harvest.
Nonetheless, high-ranking amirs like Muhammad Sahib al-Ardh continue to raise rents, to the point that peasants can barely even afford to live on their own lands. In fact, there is a rumor that the rent ceiling will be raised by 200 dirham next year. Indeed, many peasants are moving to the city, believing it to be the safer alternative: at least there, they have access to organized religious services, physicians, exorcists, and large food reserves. Although the price of food is exorbitant, at least there is food in Cairo.
The Amir’s claim that peasants are not affected by the sultan or his laws is a blatant lie. In fact, rural peasants are now rioting against the sultan’s price controls on grain, refusing to sell their crop. The price of grain, fixed by the sultan, is terribly low, and the peasants cannot make a living on it. The sultan buys their grain for a pittance and sells it back to them with a mark-up.
Coptic Christians may have more freedom outside of Cairo as the Amir claimed (festivals such as Nowaz, which were banned by the sultans continued to be practiced in the countryside until the nineteenth century). Also, the Dhimmi poll tax for non-Muslims is not applied as consistently in the countryside as in the city, since it is collected, not by the central government, but by the muqta, or owner of the land. Coptic peasants can avoid the tax by moving around.
Regardless, Copts are a very small minority in the countryside. Most converted to Islam, and only a few villages possess a Coptic majority.
Sources Consulted
Borsch, Stuart J. The Black Death in Egypt and England: A Comparative Study. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamluke Sultanate, 1250-1382. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1986.
Perho, Irmeli. “Al-Maqrizi and Ibn Taghri Bidi as Historians of Contemporary Events.” In Kennedy, Hugh Ed. The Historiography of Islamic Egypt (c. 950-1800). Boston: Brill, 2001.
Lufti, Huda. “Coptic Festivals of the Nile: Aberrations of the Past?” in The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society. Ed. Phillipp, Thomas & Ulrich Haarmann. New York: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. New York: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Tsugitaka, Sato. State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam. New York: E.J. Brill, 1997.
Historical Note
In general, life in Mamluk Egypt during the fifteenth century was pretty terrible no matter who you were. All of the events referred to in the preceding letter and disclaimer did happen. The descriptions of the plague’s effect on Cairo, as well as the description of Cairo more generally are from Shoshan’s study, while the depiction of the plague’s effect on rural society is based on Borsh’s work.
Perho’s study deals with the economic situation in the early fifteenth century, including the grain crisis. Irwin discussed the persecution of Coptic Christians, especially during difficult economic times.
The Coptic calendar in the Power Point is adopted from Tsugitaka’s translation of the calendar of Ibn Mammati, a thirteenth century Ayyubid writer. (The shape of the agricultural year did not change tremendously with the arrival of the Mamluks.) The descriptions of the Coptic festivals are based on Lufti’s work.
There is no evidence of an amir ever trying to recruit Coptic Christians to become peasants.
arch0650projectgreyson.pptx