In Praise of Books

In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo's Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, by Nelly Hanna (Cairo: American U. in Cairo P., 2004; pp. 219. Pb.n.p.). After dealing with economic activity in Making Big Money in 1600, Nelly Hanna has now turned her attention to an examination of cultural life in Ottoman Egypt. Taking up Raymond Williams's idea that culture should be studied in context, Hanna examines the development of culture as a dynamic, historical process within and reflective of its social and economic environment. Her specific focus is urban middle-class culture which, according to Hanna, was a more popular, realistic and accessible medium than the predominantly religious and idealist elite culture nurtured by traditional learning institutions, such as al-Azhar, and the socially exclusive milieu of the cultural salon. Often eschewing the formal language of the ulama (Islamic scholars), middle-class culture employed the colloquial form, drawing on elements of popular oral culture that presented a perspective of the less well-off that dealt with everyday, social concerns giving, among other things, greater visibility to women. Even in the genre of the traditional biography, middle-class writers took a different tone from lesser celebrated figures, such as barbers. Hanna focuses her analysis on the work of a Cairo scribe of the middle of the eighteenth century, Muhammad Hasan Abu Dhakir, as a representative of this middle class, whose untitled and unpublished work speaks of the concerns of an ageing, somewhat disappointed, man during a time of economic difficulty for the bourgeoisie. Hanna is most impressive in presenting the material aspects and economic basis of cultural life, taking up questions of literacy, educational transmission, the phenomenon of private libraries, and the cost of books, to establish a strong case for a vibrant middle-class culture. The power of her analysis rests considerably on evidence drawn from probate records, many of which fascinatingly list individual books owned by the deceased. Hanna quite rightly seeks to place the Egyptian situation in a broader Ottoman and Mediterranean context, drawing comparisons and making connections with similar developments in Europe. In affirming the presence of a dynamic middle-class literature that took an interest in non-religious, everyday life and articulated a more personal narrative, she is contributing to the project, pursued by Peter Gran and others, to elicit indigenous signs of modernity in the early Ottoman period at the same time as proposing a powerful and convincing critique of the orientalist scholarship that has regarded the East and its social classes as ahistorical categories. While she is aware of some of the unknowns raised by her discussion, Hanna frequently concedes the speculative nature of her ideas. At times her explanations can be mechanistic: the emphasis on the availability of cheap paper as a motor for cultural reproduction is perhaps overdone. Her definition of the middle class might also strike some as imprecise and ill-defined, since, while she makes claims for an autonomous or independent middle-class culture, she also acknowledges the significant phenomenon of social mobility. Her term ‘radical intellectuals’ for middle-class writers who criticised the behaviour of the elite but exhibited ambivalence rather than rejection towards its values seems exaggerated. Moreover, her reference to a middle class ‘democratisation’ of culture and to a ‘bottom up’ perspective of society from a group that she admits was an elite even within its own class also seems overstated. Nevertheless, Hanna's emphasis on the specific political and social context of cultural production is valuable and well-placed. In Ottoman Egypt elites used traditional institutions and patronage to cultivate a cultural and social ideology that legitimated their authority in a way that foreshadowed the modern state's use of institutions, and not least the academy, to promote a ‘national’ culture. They dominated but never monopolised the field. Hanna effectively brings to life the diversity of interest, tone and audience in Egyptian cultural life, highlighting some of its tensions and competing tendencies to show that, in the Ottoman period as now, non-academic, middle-class writers could present views dissonant with that of the establishment. In extending our understanding of this phenomenon In Praise of Books deserves an important place in the literature on cultural history in the early modern Middle East. Purposely raising more questions than it can answer, its bold and pioneering approach will no doubt stimulate further research and discussion of these important issues

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Biography · Context (archaeology · Cultural history · Elite · Literature · Middle class · Political science · Politics · Praise · Sociology · Anthropology · Classics · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law

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