[Scriptoris] middle eastern charters..?

[Diane Rudin]

--- zubeydah at northkeep.org wrote:

> With the winner of Crown Tournament's persona being Middle Eastern...
> I was curious if there are any middle eastern charters in existance. I've
> heard rumors of them being developed a few times, but haven't ever actually 
> spotted one, and was curious...

A clarification:  Amir [that's "prince"] Abd al-Mahdi Jamal ibn Hakim is a
Moor, from Spain.  His lady wife, Princesa Valeria Richila Navarro, is
fifteenth-century Spanish, from the southern regions.  There is some stylistic
difference between Moorish Spain's art and "middle-eastern" art.

I am not aware of any Arab, Moorish, or Islamic style charters currently
circulating.  The woman who was known as H.L. Margaret Pearce back when she was
in the SCA happened to drop by here last night (in happy coincidence with their
Highnesses being over for dinner), and reminded me that when they were Crown
ten years ago, some charters' texts were altered slightly for their reign, so
those might be languishing in the back of the Signet files somewhere.

I am reluctant to suggest that we create charters just for their reign, as
there are historically two results from printing "special" charters for a
reign.  First, many more of them get printed than used, resulting in even more
waste of kingdom funds than is usual in our charter-painting system.  Second,
and as a result of the first, they end up floating around in the system for
some time, with people painting them in all innocence of the time they are
wasting painting works that will most likely never be able to be used.

I also find it interesting that while our usual concept is to match the charter
to the recipient, not the granting Crown, we jump at the prospect of reversing
that when a Crown with an exotic (to us) persona comes along.  In point of
fact, years ago I argued hard with a royal herald once in support of my (and
Lasair's) having created a knight's letters patent to match his Islamic
persona, including the text, rather than matching the Crown's Renaissance
Christian persona.  The royal herald didn't want to use our (hundred-plus)
hours of work.  I was distraught, and in that state happened across the King,
who asked me what was wrong.  When the story came tumbling out, the King said
shortly, "He's wrong, and I'll take care of this!"  When the text was read in
court, there was some giggling at that Crown being called "Sultan and Sultana",
but the crowd reaction when the letters patent was shown to them was anything
but giggling.  Mahdi has been proud of owning it ever since; knights were
coming up to him and demanding to know how HE, the *baby knight*, warranted
such a cool patent, when "none of US have scrolls!", and he told them to get to
know scribes.  :)

So Ansteorran tradition is to match the document to the persona of the
recipient.  The royal herald is responsible for verbally altering the text if
their Majesties prefer another form of address, such as Ulsted and Cateau
preferring "King and Queen" over "Rex et Regina".  In addition, while Amir
Mahdi would no doubt be tickled by the idea of eastern-inspired charters, he
would never ASK us to do that, aware as he would be, being a scribe himself, of
the great additional burden that would add to a system which is already
straining, reign by reign, to keep up with Royal demand for painted charters.

HOWEVER, I do think that with the number of people in the kingdom with Arabic,
Islamic, and Moorish personae, we would do well to add ONE "middle-eastern"
style charter per frequently-given award.  As a warning, remember that a lot of
that style of art has words worked into it.  The line between lettering and art
is very blurred there.  Some people might be offended by the words, once they
figure (or find) out what it says.

Mistress Aslyn has done a number of pieces in that style.  Mistress Ari was
another frequent practitioner of that style; unfortunately, she has moved to
the Outlands, but she can still give advice.  H.L. Mahee has made a specialty
of pseudo-Arabic scripts, and has an informative website; it is my
understanding that he has also moved out of kingdom.  As mentioned above, I
myself have done such work, and would be happy to advise any would-be
designers.

I intend to speak with them tomorrow night at Steppes Business Meeting, if
possible, about their thoughts and wishes in this matter.

--Serena


		
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