Creating Medieval Cairo: Empire, Religion, and Architectural Preservation in Nineteenth-Century Egypt

by Paula Sanders

Overview

This book argues that the historic city we know as Medieval Cairo was created in the nineteenth century by both Egyptians and Europeans against a background of four overlapping political and cultural contexts: the local Egyptian, Anglo-Egyptian, Anglo-Indian, and Ottoman imperial milieux. Addressing the interrelated topics of empire, local history, religion, and transnational heritage, historian Paula Sanders shows how Cairo’s architectural heritage became canonized in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The book also explains why and how the city assumed its characteristically Mamluk appearance and situates the activities of the European-dominated architectural preservation committee (known as the Comité) within the history of religious life in nineteenth-century Cairo. Offering fresh perspectives and keen historical analysis, this volume examines the unacknowledged colonial legacy that continues to inform the practice of and debates over preservation in Cairo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789774160950
Publisher:	American University in Cairo Press, The
Publication date:	11/07/2007
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Paula Sanders is vice provost for academic affairs, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, and professor of history at Rice University. She is the author of Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo. She has published articles in the fields of medieval Islamic history and historiography, gender, and the history of conservation in Cairo.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     ix
Acknowledgments     xiii
Introduction     1
Constructing Medieval Cairo in the Nineteenth Century     19
Islam for the Modern World: Medieval Cairo between Egyptian Reformers and British Critics     59
Cairo of the Arabian Nights     89
Keeping Cairo Medieval: World Heritage and the Debate over Fatimid Monuments     115
Conclusion     143
Epilogue     149
Notes     151
Select Bibliography     188
Index     207

Editorial Reviews

Breaks new ground, asks new questions, and gives a far more sophisticated, nuanced presentation of preservation and conservation issues for Egypt than I have seen elsewhere.”—Jere Bacharach, University of Washington

From the Publisher