6 - Messengers in Byzantine and Early Muslim Egypt: Small Cogs, but Systemically Relevant. With Some Remarks on the Dossier of Menas, Stratiōtēs

Summary

In Byzantine and early Islamic Egypt, stratiōtai, symmachoi (arab. simāmika), apostolai, boukellarioi or beredarioi took over the function of messengers, collectors or guardians of the transport of taxes. This paper analyses the socio‐economic role of these intermediaries in the tax system of the early Islamic Empire and discusses a possible development from mere carriers to more independent players within this mechanism. At the beginning of Islamic rule, taxes in Egypt had been forwarded by armed messengers, possibly remnants of the Byzantine soldiers who safeguarded private estates. By the beginning of the eighth century we see more autonomous individuals who needed to be kept in check. Even though these agents may have only been small cogs in a larger machinery, they were functionally necessary for the effective operation of the entire economic, social and political system.