Abstract This article investigates the archiving practices of a little-known group of Catholics in the Ottoman Empire, the Diyarbakır Chaldeans, in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It argues for a flexible definition of archives, based not on traditional characteristics such as links to a defined institutional repository, but on their purpose of community formation. The loose institutional structure of the Chaldean Church resulted in an unconventional archive, which never had one physical centre and consisted largely of liturgical manuscripts; nonetheless, it recorded recognizably archival material and gained cohesion from the overlapping circles of families, scribes and churches involved in its production, as well as from systematic innovations in scribal practices. The Diyarbakır Chaldean archive not only reflected the distinctive form of the community but also contributed to creating and reshaping it. By recording social ties, it kept these obligations alive for decades and generated ongoing commitments. It also imagined the community on an illusory level, occluding tensions and troubles in order to preserve an idealized image of a church united under pious leadership. This dispersed, mobile archive thus was intimately connected to community formation and contributed to the survival of the Chaldean Church in a time of immense difficulty.

中文翻译：

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归档信仰：18 世纪美索不达米亚的记录保存和天主教社区形成

摘要 本文调查了 17 世纪末和 18 世纪奥斯曼帝国一个鲜为人知的天主教团体迪亚巴克尔迦勒底人的归档做法。它主张对档案进行灵活的定义，而不是基于传统特征，例如与定义的机构存储库的链接，而是基于它们形成社区的目的。迦勒底教会松散的体制结构导致了一个非传统的档案馆，它从来没有一个实体中心，主要由礼仪手稿组成。尽管如此，它记录了可识别的档案材料，并从参与其制作的家庭、抄写员和教堂的重叠圈子以及抄写实践的系统创新中获得了凝聚力。迪亚巴克尔迦勒底档案不仅反映了社区的独特形式，而且还为创建和重塑社区做出了贡献。通过记录社会关系，它使这些义务保持了数十年，并产生了持续的承诺。它还把社区想象成一个虚幻的层次，封闭紧张和麻烦，以保持一个理想化的教会形象，即在虔诚的领导下团结一致。因此，这个分散的流动档案与社区形成密切相关，并有助于迦勒底教会在巨大困难时期的生存。消除紧张和麻烦，以保持理想化的教会形象，即在虔诚的领导下团结一致。因此，这个分散的流动档案与社区形成密切相关，并有助于迦勒底教会在巨大困难时期的生存。消除紧张和麻烦，以保持理想化的教会形象，即在虔诚的领导下团结一致。因此，这个分散的流动档案与社区形成密切相关，并有助于迦勒底教会在巨大困难时期的生存。