Review

Author(s): Janet L. Abu-Lughod

Review by: Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Source: Middle East Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Summer, 1978), pp. 359-360
Published by: Middle East Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4325778
Accessed: 27-06-2016 10:28 UTC

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 BOOK REVIEWS 359
that no spokesman for the Zionist or Israeli point
of view was present: the conferees agreed that
this should be remedied at any future meeting
of this kind.
A EVAN M. WILSON, former US Consul General in
Jerusalem, is the author of Jerusalem: Key to Peace
(Washington: Middle East Institute, 1970).
EGYPT
CONQUEST AND FUSION: THE SOCIAL EVOLU-
TION OF CAIRO, A.D. 642-1850, by Susan
Jane Staffa. Leiden, Brill: 1977. 449 pages.
Illus. Maps. No price indicated.
Reviewed by Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Conquest and Fusion is a fundamental and
excellent addition to the growing literature on
Cairo, a city which continues to inspire sufficient
affection and fascination to sustain authors
through long and challenging years of labor.
No information is given on the background of
the book or its author, but it appears to be a doc-
toral dissertation of remarkable quality and am-
bitious scope. The research was undertaken dur-
ing eight years of residence in Egypt. The
work was apparently substantially completed in
the early 1970s, although a few chapters on
the Turkish period were revised (or added) to
incorporate Andre Raymond's detailed scholar-
ship on the economy of eighteenth century
Cairo, published in 1974. There is no evidence
that this reviewer's work on Cairo, written by
1967 but not in print until 1971, was available
when Ms. Staffa undertook her research. It
is, therefore, quite possible that many of the
parallels in format (and even in extracted quota-
tions) are attributable to our mutual dependence
upon common sources. Although the field can
easily absorb many books, each written from a
somewhat different vantage point and with a
different goal, it is always a pity when systematic
aggregation is lost. I, for one, would have
benefitted immeasurably from her careful scholar-
ship and regret that some of the items I
struggled with and finally resolved could not have
assisted her, e.g. the confusion over the term
"Misr" which arises on pp. 52-53.
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The book focuses chiefly on the social class
system of Cairo from the founding of al-Fustat in
642 to the early Muhammad 'Ali period (handled
all too sketchily). The subtitle would have been
more accurate if the terminal date had been
given as 1800 or 1811, instead of 1850. As it
stands, the crucial issues of economic change
under Muhammad 'All, the important influences
upon the city of IbrThim Pasha (unaccountably
never mentioned) and the long term effects
that Egypt's absorption into the European domi-
nated world system had upon realignments in
Cairo's class structure are essentially ignored in
this work.
The ability of the author to tease out class
structure and social organization at various points
in the city's development is obviously contingent
not only upon her own research, which is careful
and extensive. It relies as well upon her cautious
and sensible interpretations, upon the nature of
the available sources and upon the vast variation
in the latter which accounts for so much of the
uneven success of the narrative. Part I (Chs.
1-4) covers the pre-Ayyiubid period. Here the
classical Arabic sources have been thoroughly
mined and often used in imaginative ways. Even
so, by their nature they are not full enough to
allow much reinterpretation. The recent publica-
tions of Goitein have enabled her to expand
considerably coverage of the "middle" period of
Cairene history from Ayyiubid to late Mamluk
times. Nonetheless, Ms. Staffa accepts too un-
critically both the general framework offered by
Lapidus (which was based upon far less data than
hers) and the accuracy of Goitein's interpreta-
tion of the Geniza papers.
By far the most innovative and valuable por-
tion of the book is Part III, Chs. 13-17,
which deals with the Turkish period. Ms. Staffa
covers ground therein which was previously
impossible for many researchers to explore.
All prior histories of Cairo have treated this
period as a lacuna of stagnation and decline.
That they did so can be attributed in part to the
inadvertent impression that modernism burst full
blown upon a moribund structure to which there
were only tenuous links. Thanks to the incredibly
detailed and methodical scholarship of Andre
Raymond on economic life in Cairo in the
eighteenth century, it is now possible to begin
to evaluate this period. Because of the paucity
360 THE MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL
of analysis in Raymond's material, however, a
heavy responsibility still rests with the social
historian seeking interpretive understanding of
the events and facts he has assembled. While
relatively ignorant of this period, this reviewer
found Ms. Staffa's treatment impressive and con-
vincing. On the basis of knowledge of other
parts of the Middle East, however, it is difficult
to believe that exogenous influences were as in-
significant as she implies by omission.
Picayune flaws, inevitable in any book, exist,
to be sure, in the volume under review. In this
instance, however, it is a delight to say that they
cannot in any way detract from the enormous
feat of research and synthesis achieved by the
author. We shall be indebted for many years to
come for the new light this work sheds on the
continuing enigma of Cairo.
A JANET ABU-LUGHOD, Northwestern University,
Evanston, Illinois, is the author of Cairo: 1000
Years of the City Victorious (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1971) and numerous
other works on social change in the Arab Middle
East.
NORTH AFRICA
THE TUAREGS: THEIR ISLAMIC LEGACY AND ITS
DIFFUSION IN THE SAHEL, by H. T. Norris.
Warminster, Wilts, England: Aris and Phillips,
Ltd., 1975. xv + 201 pages. Illus. Append. to
p. 220. Gloss to p. 226. Bibl. to p. 228. Index
to p. 234. No price indicated.
Reviewed by Richard L. Smith
Of all the Saharan peoples, the Western mind
has been most fascinated by the Tuaregs. These
are the men of the veil, the camel nomads of
the Sahara and the Sahel, the tall sinewy folk char-
acterized in literature and history as noble and
cruel, resisters of Arab and French, maintainers
of a matrilineal society and preservers of an
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ancient language called Tamashegh written in
Tifinagh script.
Unfortunately, there are no great works of
history in Tifinagh, and it is not surprising
that in the area of Tuareg studies anthropology
has claimed pride of place over history. The
piecing together of Tuareg history is, therefore,
a monumental task. Tuaregs have been divided
into confederations and tribes, living hundreds
of miles apart, which have split, joined or dis-
appeared with barely a mention from woefully
inadequate sources. Beneath the surface simi-
larities, Tuareg society was diverse and vari-
able. In short, there are many complex histories
and one has few ways of finding out much about
any of them. Because of the nature of the
material, Tuareg history can easily be over-
simplified and romanticized or it can become
so complicated and esoteric that only the spe-
cialist would dare to confront it. This book by
H. T. Norris does not fall into the former
category.
Among some Arabs, the Tuaregs were derisively
known as the "Christians of the Desert." This was
not because the Tuaregs were disposed toward
Christianity (as witness the martyred White
Fathers and frustrated Baptist missionaries) but
because they were believed to be such poor
Muslims. Norris does not set out to show that
the entire Tuareg nation has been maligned in
this respect, nor does he explore the strength
of Islamic fervor among the tribes of the Imashagen
(nobles) and Imghad (vassals) and their Bella
slaves. Instead, he concentrates on the Ineslemen,
the sacred tribes who devoted themselves to
study and prayer, and their centers of learning
at Tadamakkat (al-Siuq), Air, Tagedda and Ara-
wagh. The Kal al-Scuq tribe is justly accorded
the most attention.
This book is a helpful work of reference for
those who would be inclined to use it. The
volume contains poetry, recounts epics and fables
such as those of 'Uqba al-Mustajab and Kari-
dinna, and examines the influence that other
Islamic scholars such as al-Maghli and al-
Suyiuti had on the Ineslemen. Norris has impres-
sive contacts with modern Tuareg savants which
account for much of this. The medieval and
modern periods are covered, including the
Sanuisi-inspired jihaid of 1916-17.