H 290 x W 205 mm

292 pages

Illustrated throughout in colour and black & white

Published Jan 2025

Archaeopress Archaeology

ISBN

Paperback: 9781803279435

Digital: 9781803279442

DOI 10.32028/9781803279435

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Keywords
Dakhleh Oasis; Qasr al-Dakhleh; Islamic Glazed Wares; Arab Tribal Marks; Sennussiya; Blemmeyes; 'City of the Dead'; Fertility Ritual; Epistemology

Related titles

Dakleh Oasis Project Monograph 25

The Oasis Papers 7

Studies on Late Roman to Modern Egypt in Honour of Fred Leemhuis

Edited by Gillian E. Bowen, Colin A. Hope, Olaf E. Kaper, Paul N. Kucera

Associate Editor Bruce E. Parr

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This tribute to Professor Fred Leemhuis reflects his diverse interests in Egyptology and Islamic studies, with a focus on al-Qasr in Dakhleh. Topics include medieval and Ottoman archaeology, burial practices, ceramics, rock art, Qur’anic translations, and modern Egyptian traditions, alongside accounts of WWI hostilities in the oases.

The late Professor Fred Leemhuis was an Arabist and Islamist at the University of Groningen, well known in the Netherlands for his translation into Dutch of the Qur’an, sometime Director of the Dutch-Flemish Institute Cairo, and Director of the Qasr Dakhleh Project. His interests ranged across all things to do with Egypt but especially those following the Arab conquest, and this tribute to his memory attempts to reflect that diversity and also highlight his significant work at al-Qasr which cast valuable light on periods not well known for the Western Desert of Egypt. Several papers focus upon this imposing medieval and Ottoman settlement in Dakhleh, and the discovery of the late Roman fort there: these range from conservation, to archaeology, artefacts, and texts as well as an imaginative account of people moving to the fort from nearby Trimithis when it was going into decline in the late fourth century. Aspects of burial practice in that oasis and neighbouring Kharga, both early Christian and Roman, are discussed, and the identification of cancer amongst the inhabitants of Kellis in Dakhleh is proposed. The extent of settlement in Dakhleh during the Fatimid to Mamluk Periods is discussed using glazed ceramics; other topics include aspects of architecture at another of Dakhleh’s Islamic sites, al-Qasaba, and Arab tribal marks on rock surfaces in Dakhleh. Rock art study also extends into Kharga. The discoveries at a site in the Nile valley possibly occupied by the Blemmeyes, who harassed many parts of Egypt in late antiquity, are outlined, along with the associated rock art. Moving into more recent times, the survival of a medieval tradition of large mud-brick walls on the edge of the area of cultivation amongst modern Egyptians in the valley, and a contemporary fertility ritual in Dakhleh, are described, as are notions of how to address God and others in translations of the Qur’an. The restoration of a spectacular mausoleum in Cairo’s ‘City of the Dead’ is described, and the first detailed account of hostilities in the Egyptian oases during the First World War is presented.

Contents
About the Author

Editorial Note

Fred Leemhuis – Biography – Vreni, Rob and Benni Leemhuis

Qasr Dakhleh Project – Anthony J. Mills

Remembering Fred Leemhuis – Barbara Roggema

Working with Fred Leemhuis – Anja van de Put

An Appreciation of Fred Leemhuis – Maher Bashandy Amin and Sabry Yusuf Abd ar-Rahman

Publications of Fred Leemhuis

Bearing Witness: Fred Leemhuis Breathes Life into al-Qasr’s Ancient Mud-Brick Houses – Yasser Ali

From Trimithis to al-Qasr – Anna Lucille Boozer

The Late Antique Burials at Dayr Abu Matta – Gillian E. Bowen, Tosha Dupras, Rosanne Livingstone and Peter Sheldrick

A Probable Blemmye Site with Associated Rock Art Near the Wadi Abbad – John C. Darnell, Axelle Brémont, Sofia Kane, Colleen M. Darnell and Alberto Urcia

Legacy for the Living in the ‘City of the Dead’ – Agnieszka Dobrowolska and Jarosław Dobrowolski

Day of Palms Crosses in Egyptian Tombs at El-Deir, Kharga Oasis, Fourth–Fifth Centuries CE – Françoise Dunand and Roger Lichtenberg

A Note on Silo Houses at al-Qasaba (Dakhleh Oasis) and Istabl ‘Antar (Fustat-Cairo) – Roland-Pierre Gayraud

Archaeological Evidence for Islamic Activity in Dakhleh Oasis – Colin A. Hope, Julie Monchamp and Anthony J. Mills

The Western Front in Egypt: The Senussiyya, Ottoman and British Military Intervention in the Western Desert, 1915–1917 – Olaf E. Kaper

al-Qasr: A Synthesis of the Archaeological Work of the Qasr Dakhleh Project – Paul N. Kucera

Graffiti Interactions at Pet Rock, Kharga Oasis – Nikolaos Lazaridis and Salima Ikram

The Glazed Wares from Excavations in front of Bayt al-Qadi and Bayt al-Qurashi at al-Qasr – Anetta Łyzwa-Piber

Archives de famille dans les oasis d’Égypte à l’époque ottomane. Les papiers al-Qurašī d’al-Qaṣr en contexte – Nicolas Michel

Marking One’s Moves: A Minor Contribution to the Study of Tribal Marks in Egypt and Beyond – Pawel L. Połkowski

A Roman Mummy Mask in the Brooklyn Museum: Detecting Cartonnage. Provenience through Regional Indicia and Craftsmanship Investigation – Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo

Rehabilitation and Reuse of Historical Mud-Brick Architecture in al-Qasr, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt – Wolf Schijns

Cancer in the Dakhleh Oasis – Peter Sheldrick and J. Eldon Molto

How to Address God and Others in Qur’an Translations – Geert Jan van Gelder

A Visitor to Dakhleh in 1929: Herbert Ricke and the Orbis Terrarum – Nicholas Warner and Salima Ikram in collaboration with Cornelius von Pilgrim

A Modern Survival of the Medieval Traditions on the ‘Wall of the Old Lady’ – Harco Willems

Über mulagā die ‚Begegnung‘: Ein Fruchtbarkeitsritual in Bashandi in Ost-Dakhleh – Manfred Woidich

The Dakhleh Oasis Project Monographs

About the Author

Gillian Bowen and Colin Hope are Senior Research Adjuncts in the Centre for Ancient Cultures at Monash University and direct excavations in Dakhleh Oasis at Ismant al-Kharab, Mut al-Kharab and Dayr Abu Matta, which span almost 4000 years. Hope is a founding member of the Dakhleh Oasis Project who has coordinated research on ceramics and focuses upon settlement archaeology in Dakhleh, while Bowen specialises in the archaeology of early Christianity.

Olaf Kaper is Professor of Egyptology at Leiden University, co-director of excavations at Amhida in the Dakhleh Oasis, epigrapher for Dakhleh Oasis Project, and an authority on ancient Egyptian religion.

Paul Kucera now directs the Qasr Dakhleh Project and is an authority on Roman military architecture in Egypt.

Publishing Scholarly Archaeology since 1997

Publishing Scholarly Archaeology since 1997

The Oasis Papers 7

Studies on Late Roman to Modern Egypt in Honour of Fred Leemhuis

Contents

About the Author