Masterclass on "The Use and Abuse of Geniza Documents" with Prof. Dr. Maya Shatzmiller (University of Western Ontario)
06.11.2024 – 07.11.2024
The workshop participants will focus on two issues. First the unique value of the Geniza to the economic history of the medieval Middle East, of the quantitative data they provide. I will examine two cases, first the significance of the statistics I derived from the marriage and family gifts data to social and economic history, the second, the data I collected and analyzed on manuscript production, paper making, and the decline in the price of books, and its significance for estimating literacy rate. The second issue is why relying solely on the Geniza risks producing misconstrued historical analysis.
Workshop
Wednesday, 6th November 2024
First Session
10:00-12:30
Break 12:30-14:00
Second Session
14:00-15:30
Thursday, 7th November 2024
Third Session
10:00-12:30
Break 12:30-14:00
Fourth Session
14:00-15:30