The great cities of the Middle East and North Africa have long attracted the attention and interest of historians. With the discovery and wider use over the last few decades of the Islamic court records and Ottoman administrative documents, our knowledge of Middle Eastern cities between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries has vastly expanded. Drawing upon a treasure trove of documents and using a variety of methodologies, the contributors succeed in providing a significant overview of the ways in which Middle Eastern cities can be studied, as well as an excellent introduction to current literature in the field, affording us a foundational volume that enriches our understanding of society in the late Ottoman and colonial periods. Contributors: Edmund Burke III, Leila Fawaz, Bernard Hourcade, Robert Ilbert, Dina Rizk Khoury, Gudrun Krämer, Abdul-Karim Rafeq, Sarah D. Shields, Peter Sluglett, Sami Zubaida.
The Urban Social History of the Middle East, 1750–1950
Edited by
Peter Sluglett
338 pp.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774163296
For sale only in the Middle East
$24.95
Related products
A Convergence of Civilizations
The Transformation of Muslim Societies around the World
Yousef CourbageEmmanuel Todd
Leaving aside the media’s sound and fury on the conflict between the west and the Islamic world, measured analysis shows another reality taking shape: rapprochement between these two civilizations, benefiting from a universal movement with roots in the Enlightenment. The historical and geographical sweep of this book discredits the notion of a specific Islamic demography. The range of fertility among Muslim women, for example, is as varied as religious behavior among Muslims in general. Whether agnostics, fundamentalist Salafis, or al-Qaeda activists, Muslims are a diverse group that prove the variety and individuality of Islam. Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd consider different degrees of literacy, patriarchy, and defensive reactions among minority Muslim populations, underscoring the spread of massive secularization throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Sensitive to demographic variables and their reflection of personal and social truths, Courbage and Todd upend a dangerous meme: that we live in a fractured world close to crisis, struggling with an epidemic of closed cultures and minds made different by religion.
...read more
Paperback
152 pp.1 map, 8 graphs, 10 tables
15X23cm
$22.95
Beyond the Victim
The Politics and Ethics of Empowering Cairo’s Street Children
Kamal FahmiStreet children—abandoned or runaway children living on their own—can be found in cities all over the world, and their numbers are growing despite numerous international programs aimed at helping them. All too frequently, these children are viewed solely as victims or deviants to be rescued and rehabilitated. In Beyond the Victim, sociologist Kamal Fahmi draws on eight years of fieldwork with street children in Cairo to portray them in a much different—and empowering—light. Fahmi argues that, far from being mere victims or deviants, these children, in running away from alienating home lives and finding relative freedom in the street, are capable of actively defining their situations in their own terms. They are able to challenge the roles assigned to children, make judgments, and develop a network of niches and resources in a teeming metropolis such as Cairo. Fahmi suggests that social workers and others need to respect the agency the children display in changing their own lives. In addition to collective advocacy with and on behalf of street children, social workers should empower them by encouraging their voluntary participation in non-formal educational activities.
...read more
Hardbound
216 pp.13 illus. incl. 5 in color
15X23cm
$29.95
Beyond the Façade
Political Reform in the Arab World
Edited by Marina OttawayJulia Choucair-Vizoso
Some governments of the Middle East have taken steps toward political reform. Are these meaningful changes, or empty attempts to pacify domestic and international public opinion? How do we distinguish reforms that alter the character of the political system from those that are only window dressing? Beyond the Façade evaluates the changes that are taking place in the region and explores the potential for further reform. The essays provide careful, detailed examinations of ten countries, highlighting the diversity of processes and problems. Contributors: Nathan Brown, Julia Choucair-Vizoso, Michele Dunne, Amr Hamzawy, Ellen Lust-Okar, Marina Ottaway, Sarah Phillips, Meredith Riley, Hugh Roberts, and Paul Salem. “A significant and needed contribution.”—Robert Springborg, SOAS, University of London “Superb . . . coherent, concise, and consistently insightful.”—Foreign Affairs
...read more
Paperback
304 pp.15X23cm
$29.95
Cairo Contested
Governance, Urban Space, and Global Modernity
Edited by Diane SingermanThis cross-disciplinary, ethnographic, contextualized, and empirical volume explores the meaning and significance of urban space, and maps the spatial inscription of power on the mega-city of Cairo. Suspicious of collective life and averse to power-sharing, Egyptian governance structures weaken but do not stop the public’s role in the remaking of their city. What happens to a city where neo-liberalism has scaled back public services and encouraged the privatization of public goods, while the vast majority cannot afford the effects of such policies? Who wins and loses in the “march to the modern and the global” as the government transforms urban spaces and markets in the name of growth, security, tourism, and modernity? How do Cairenes struggle with an ambiguous and vulnerable legal and bureaucratic environment when legality is a privilege affordable only to the few or the connected? This companion volume to Cairo Cosmopolitan (2006) further develops the central insights of the Cairo School of Urban Studies. Contributors: Khaled Adham, Jennifer Bell, Agnès Deboulet, Taline Djerdjerian, W.J. Dorman, Bénédicte Florin, Jörg Gertel, Katarzyna Grabska, Patrick Haenni, Kareem Ibrahim, Samia Mehrez, Sarah Ben Néfissa, Agnieszka Paczynska, Samuli Schielke, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Diane Singerman, Hania Sobhy, Malika Zeghal.
...read more
15 October 2009
Hardbound
536 pp.15X23cm
$34.95