_ 251 _ achieve literary mention are known to him, and then only through the reflecting medium of literary sources. Even the great figures, with few exceptions, remain ‘dim and formalized outlines, while for the life of the people he has to rely mainly on occasional hints and scraps of evidence. Large numbers of individual documents survive in isolation-some in the form of inscriptions, others quoted in the texts of the chronicles; but only for one period after the rise of Islam is any important body of original documents available - and the light, they have shed on the period from which they derive has deepened the surrounding darkness. The Egyptian papyri of the early Islamic period have imposed a rewriting of much of the history of the early Caliphate, as recorded by the chroniclers and jurists. Yet even the papyri are not archives in the true sense of the word. They are fortuitous assemblages of documents, discovered by chance and distributed haphazard, with no cohesion other than that imposed on them by historians. Archives are compiled not for historical but for administrative purposes, and much of their value lies in their continuity and cohesion. When the institution for the use of which the archives were compiled ceases to exist, the archives themselves are neglected, scattered, and eventually destroyed.
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