Aiming to Reconstruct the "Total History" of a City by Elucidating Islamic Society through Court Registers

My area of expertise is Arab-Islamic history from the 13th to the 18th centuries and the urban social history of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. I am currently working to elucidate the urban structure and society of the Ottoman period by reading through the Islamic court registers of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, a provincial city in the Nile Delta region.

At the time, Islamic court registers also served as property registries. They contain records of sales and leases for various properties. By studying them, we can understand various aspects of people's lives. They reveal relationships between people, family matters, economic activities, the guild activities of merchants and artisans, and the social influence of local notables. Based on these Arabic historical sources, I aim to reconstruct the "total history" of the city.

Within the Islamic court registers, I am currently focusing on the records of waqf. Waqf is an Islamic system of endowed property. Individuals would designate land or buildings they owned as waqf property, and the revenue generated from it would be used to perpetually fund charitable activities. This money was used for the operation of hospitals, mosques, and schools, and to help the poor. The founders of waqfs believed that by doing so, they could continue to perform good deeds after their death until the Day of Judgment, thus increasing their chances of entering paradise. For this reason, it became very popular among the people. In fact, this played a major role in the development of the city's social infrastructure. It is also very interesting that it functioned as a system for poor relief and wealth redistribution. Waqf-related records provide major clues for elucidating the society of that time.

In Japan, it seems that not a few people have an image of Muslims as engaging in fanatical and extreme political movements. This is likely due to the influence of one-sided media coverage. However, if we view Islam from a historico-formative perspective, a different picture emerges. In the Islamic world, methods were pursued for people of diverse languages and religions to coexist successfully. There was a lively exchange among various ethnic groups, and Islam also spread in regions originally populated by many Jews and Christians. During the Ottoman period, a system matured that allowed non-Muslims to play diverse and active roles, even though Islam was dominant. This excellent tradition of Islamic pluralistic coexistence still lives on among people today.

The Middle Eastern Islamic world has played a significant role in human history. Having such knowledge is becoming increasingly important for living in the world of tomorrow. By conveying the history and positive traditions of Islam, I hope to change, even if only slightly, the fixed perceptions of Islam.