While historians have mined archives and court documents to create a picture of the commercial activities, networks, and infrastructure of merchants in Egypt prior to its incorporation into the European capitalist economy, few have documented a similar picture of the artisans and craftspeople. Artisans outnumbered merchants and their economic weight was considerable, yet details about their lives, the way they carried out their work, and their role or position in the economy is largely unknown. Nelly Hanna seeks to redress this gap by locating and exploring the role of artisans in the historical process. These artisans developed a variety of capitalist practices, both as individuals and collectively in their guilds. Hanna details how they defied the constraints of the guilds and actively engaged in the markets of Europe, demonstrating how Egyptian artisan production was able to compete and survive in a landscape of growing European trade. Deftly synthesizing a wide range of economic and historical theory, Hanna reinvigorates the current scholarship on early Ottoman history and provides a persuasive challenge to the largely shallow perception of artisans’ role in Egypt’s economy.
Artisan Entrepreneurs in Cairo and Early Modern Capitalism 1600–1800
Nelly Hanna
256 pp.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774164798
For sale only in the Middle East
24.95
Also available by this author
Making Big Money in 1600
The Life and Times of Ismail Abu Taqiyya, Egyptian Merchant
Nelly HannaNelly Hanna’s work challenges the standard perceptions about Middle East society and economy of the seventeenth century. Novel in both its approach and its information, this book’s central theme revolves around the rise of an indigenous form of capitalism existing as early as the 1600s. Making Big Money in 1600 examines the reemergence of the economic sector and its complex influences on social conditions during this time. By examining the life and work of Isma‘il Abu Taqiyya, Hanna traces the relationship between economic activities and culture. As we are introduced to Abu Taqiyya we learn how he negotiates partnership with other merchants, arranges for the handling of goods, and negotiates loans for colleagues. Hanna reveals his home life, his wives, children, and concubines, his relations with his family and friends, and how these relations evolved and were affected by the changing social and economic conditions—a perspective rarely discussed in works before the modern period.
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Paperback
224 pp.4 maps
15X23cm
18.95
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