RES OURCESviews, see A. Jeffery's review in MW 30 (1946): 191-98. For her
response see pp. 73-79 of her "Arabic Paleography," Ars Islamica 8
(1941): 65-104. A. Grohmann's Arabische Palaographie (Vienna, 1967-
71), the product of decades of work, is the standard reference for this
subject.
For early Arabic texts, one can consult B. Moritz, Arabic Palaeog-
raphy: A Collection of Arabic Texts from the First Century of the
Hidjra till the Year 1000 (Cairo, 1905); M. Van Berchem, Materiaux
pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum (Jerusalem, 1922); and
E. Combe, J. Sauvaget, and G. Wiet, Repertoire chronologique d'e-
pigraphie arabe (Cairo, 1931). H. EI-Hawary's "The Most Ancient
Islamic Monument Known Dated A.H. 31 (A.D. 652) from the Time
of the Third Calif 'Uthman,:: ]RAS (1930), 321-33; "The Second
Oldest Islamic Monument Known Dated A.H. 71 (A.D. 691) from the
Time of the Omayyad Calif 'Abd-el-Malik ibn Marwan," ]RAS (1932),
289-93; and Steles funeraires (Cairo, 1932) concern early Islamic
tombstones now in Egypt. N. Abbott's "The ~a~r Kharana Inscription
of A.H. 92 (A.D. 710): A New Reading," Ars Islamica 11-12 (1946):
190-95, which testifies to the companionship of at least one Muslim
and one Jew; G. Miles's "Early Islamic Inscriptions Near Tii'if in the
l:Iijaz," ]NES 7 (1948): 236-42, which includes Mu'awiya's building
inscription on a dam dated A.H. 58 (A.D. 678); and C. Kessler's "'Abd
al-Malik's Inscription in the Dome of the Rock," ]RAS (1970), pp.
2-14, should all be consulted. Although none of these inscriptions are
from Iraq, they are evidence of contemporary Arabic usage and provide
a context for understanding an inscription dated A.H. 64 (A.D. 683)
found in the desert west of Karbala. This inscription was published
by 'I. ar-Rassam, "I:Iagar I:Iafnat al-'Ubayyid," Sumer 2 (1955): 213-
- For early inscriptions from Iraq, one should now consult I. Salman,
ed., Texts in the Iraq Museum, vol. VIII, Arabic Texts (Baghdad,
1975).
Arabic papyri are indispensable documents for understanding the
administration and social and economic life of early Islamic Egypt.
They are proof in themselves of the use of written Arabic in early
Islamic administration and provide examples of what administrative
communications were like. They thus serve as a control on the letters
and other documents from early Islamic Iraq that are quoted in later
Arabic literature. The best survey and introduction to the papyri in
English is still A. Grohmann's From the World of Arabic Papyri (Cairo,
1952), which has an extensive guide to collections of papyri and a