En 1954 paraissait l'Introduction a l' etude de la papyrologie arabe de Grohmann, dont il a donne en 1966 un grand resume dans la serie Handbuch der Orientalistik. Le second volume, c'est-a-dire la Chrestomathie, ne vit malheureusement jamais le jour, du vivant de l'auteur, qui s'est eteint en 1977. Ce volume, presente ici, apporte, apres une introduction generale sur l'histoire de sa genese et l'evolution de la papyrologie arabe jusque vers 1990, un ensemble de 98 documents arabes, la plupart sur papyrus, dont une quarantaine sont publies pour la premiere fois ici. Pour plus d'efficacite et pour englober le maximum d' aspects utiles aux chercheurs des differentes disciplines interessees, le plan initial de l'auteur a ete modifie et elargi de plusieurs domaines, ce qui fait que nous avons les parties suivantes: I-Textes de protocoles: bilingues et unilingues. II-Textes juridiques contenant des documents concernant: A-Le droit personnel-le droit matrimonial-B-Des relations d'affaires-C-Le droit hereditaire-D-Les procedures judiciaires-E- Des formulaires et esquisses de documents. III-Textes adminitratifs. IV-Lettres privees d'affaires.
Enfin un glossaire arabe-francais-allemand, une bibliographie et des index. Ainsi concue, cette Chrestomathie se propose de servir comme instrument de travail a toutes les disciplines interessees a l'etude de la vie privee, sociale et administrative des premiers siecles islamiques, a travers des documents authentiques, dont la valeur est d'autant plus grande, qu'ils sont souvent uniques dans leur genre, pour l'etude de ces problemes dans la culture arabo-islamique en general. Les documents sont accompagnees d'une traduction francaise, et de notes ce qui en rend l'usage aise pour les non arabisants, comme les theologiens, les juristes, les historiens, les sociologues et d'autres. Although Grohman's Einfuhrung in die arabische Papyruskunde appeared already in 1954 and was the subject of a major resume in 1966 (in Handbuch der Orientalistik), the appearance of the second volume, which would have been the chrestomathy, was prevented by the death of the great scholar in 1977.
The volume here on offer presents, after a general introduction explaining the genesis of the book itself as well as the evolution of Arabic papyrology until 1990, a corpus of 98 Arabic documents, mostly on papyrus. About forty of these are published here for the first time. With a view to making the work as user friendly as possible, and to encapsulate the maximum number of areas of potential use for interested scholars from different disciplines, Grohman's original plan has been modified and expanded in the following areas: I- protocol texts: mono- and bilingual. II- legal texts, containing the following documents: A. personal and matrimonial law. B. business documents. C. heridatory law. D. legal cases. E. Formularies and type-documents. III- administrative texts. IV private business letters. These are followed by an Arabic-French-German glossary, a bibliography, and full indices.
Conceived in this manner, this chrestomathy is intended to function as a research tool for all disciplines concerned with the study of the private, social, and administrative life of the first few centuries of Islam, through the medium of original documents of undisputed authenticity many of which have special interest even within their own genres. Within this material much will be found of relevance for the study of the afore mentioned areas of research within the arabic Islamic culture. The documents are accompanied by a French translation, and notes intended also to facilitate their use by non-Arabists, such as theologians, legal experts, historians, sociologists etc..