Interpreting Economies in Khurasan in the 11th–13th Century CE through Documentary Sources

A macro study of the economy of medieval Khurasan would oversimplify so vast and diverse a region as Khurasan, much like the “silk roads” paradigm oversimplifies. Micro-histories give a more comprehensive account of the totality of life on the ground. The chapter first reviews the secondary literature (sparse as it is) and the state of the field on local economies in medieval Khurasan. It then introduces the new documentary sources from Khurasan forming the empirical base for an innovative research program before going on to discuss what the documentary data reveal about the economy in parts of medieval Khurasan where the documents were issued, notably Bamiyan and Firuzkuh in Afghanistan during the 11th–13th centuries ce. Examples from four documents in the forms of petition letters and internal administrative orders are showcased. The sources give a rare view from below, from which a tentative assessment of agrarian and fiscal policies, land management, and peasant agency is drawn up. The documentary evidence challenges prevailing assumptions in the scholarship of peasant oppression and compliance. The revision to this interpretation offers a scenario in which peasants have managed their relationships with their landlords and the provincial administration strategically and carefully, with a view to protecting their interests, feeding their families, and making commercial gain to attain upward mobility.