Scribal Object: An Abbasid Tombstone

For my scribal object, I chose a tombstone from the Abbasid period (dated 861-62). Crafted out of marble, this tombstone bears a religious inscription. Ironically, it violates conventional practices of the time. Displaying verses from the Qur'an, this tombstone serves to replicate sacred text, a very much unorthodox purpose. As I learned, any sort of ornamental grave markers were strictly condemned during this period. This relationship between ideology and popular practice offers great insight into the role of scribes throughout the Middle Ages. As shown by this gravestone, scribes served to "depict" the lives of ordinary people. Such unorthodox descriptions on graves suggest a lack of compliance with orthodox ideals in everyday life. Additionally, scribes seemed to serve as the final portrayers of people's lives. They inscribed passages on graves that presumably epitomized the deceased (or at least offered some insight into his/her life). It also appears that scribes served to proliferate Arab writing/calligraphy beyond scripture, as is evidenced by the quality of letters present on this tombstone. Essentially, scribes were not limited to the "usual" lines of work (e.g. calligraphy, copying of scriptures, etc.). In this way, scribes functioned to fill in historical gaps left by rulers and other writers of history. Finally, scribes offered insight into language and culture through their grave inscriptions specifically. Gravestones might have had various occupations, language constructions (i.e. colloquial compared to formal), and cultural insights (e.g. tribal affiliation) inscribed in them, all of which offer a wealth of information to historians about the times and the people of the times. Thus, scribes were a vital link between the populace and the government...between the past and the present.