Aloneness as Connector in Arabic Papyrus Letters of Request By Petra Sijpesteijn

https://www.academia.edu/145355196/Aloneness_as_Connector_in_Arabic_Papyrus_Letters_of_Request?email_work_card=title Amongst the thousands of papyrus and paper documents from medieval Egypt written in Greek, Coptic and Arabic there are a large number of letters of requests and petition letters. This chapter examines how the senders of these letters used the argument of being alone and helpless to persuade the letter’s recipient to undertake some action to help the petitioners. By presenting the petitioner as someone without friends, family or anyone else to help them, a relationship is created with the petitioned who can help based on the social and moral expectations that prevailed in early Islamic Egyptian society. ...