In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo's Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century

by Nelly Hanna

Overview

In fine detail, the author explores economic influences on culture during periods of plenty and poverty. She examines the bond between commerce and escalating literacy via the building of schools, the availability of cheap paper, and the proliferation of books. And she assesses coffeehouses, storytellers, and phantom plays as a principal circuit for the spread of oral middle-class culture. Drawing on both published and unpublished sources, Hanna unveils a full-fledged Cairene middle-class culture that bridges the gap between the salons (majalis) of the elite and the common people. A major contribution to Egypt's cultural record, this book sets a high standard for future research on the history of the Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815630364
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2003
Series:	Middle East Studies Beyond Dominant Paradigms
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Nelly Hanna is professor and chair of the Department of Arabic Studies at the American University of Cairo. She is the author of a number of books, including Making Big Money in 1600: The Life and Times of Ismai'l Abu Taqiyya, Egyptian Merchant, also published by Syracuse University Press.

Editorial Reviews

Nelly Hanna's wonderfully concise and elegant In Praise of Books argues that from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth, in sharp contrast to received wisdom, the situation in Egypt was not so different from that in the other Mediterranean countries, as literacy spread to an emerging bourgeoisie. In Egypt, however, this was due not to printed books, which might have been cheaper than manuscript copies, but to the availability of inexpensive paper, which made even hand-copied books affordable to middle-class readers. . . .This thoughtful book suggests that the deep and previously unexplored traditions of Cairo's middle-class culture provided the real foundation on which these supposed 'innovations' rested.

Times Literary Supplement