The Postal Animals in the Light of the Arabic Papyri (A historical and Documentary Study)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels - University of Sadat City

Abstract

This paper studies the attestations of the postal animals (Dawab al-barid) in Arab papyri from the first-fourth centuries AH, aiming to explain the great importance of these animals in transmitting messages, orders and news between the caliphal capital and its territories, especially after the expansion of the Islamic Caliphate. These papyri are preserved in the Egyptian Library, the John Rylands Collection in Manchester, England, and the collection at the Institute of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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