Popular Culture In Medieval Cairo

Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Popular culture in medieval Cairo Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Editorial board DAVID MORGAN (general editor) JOSEF VAN ESS BARBARA FLEMMING ROY MOTTAHEDEH METIN KUNT W. F. MADELUNG BASIM MUSALLAM Titles in the series B. F. MUSALLAM. Sex and society in Islam: birth control before the nineteenth century SURAIYA FAROQHI. Towns and townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia: trade, crafts and food production in an urban setting, 1520-1650 SURAIYA FAROQHI. Men of modest substance: house owners and house property in seventeenth-century Ankara and Kayseri PATRICIA CRONE. Roman, provincial and Islamic law: the origins of the Islamic patronate STEFAN SPERL. Mannerism in Arabic poetry: a structural analysis of selected texts, 3rd century AH19th century AD-5th century AH111th century AD BEATRICE FORBES MANZ. The rise and rule of Tamerlane AMNON COHEN. Economic life in Ottoman Jerusalem PAUL E. WALKER. Early philosophical Shiism: the Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistdni Popular culture in medieval Cairo BOAZ SHOSHAN Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1993 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1993 Reprinted 1996 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Shoshan, Boaz. Popular culture in medieval Cairo / Boaz Shoshan. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 43209 X I. Cairo (Egypt) - Social life and customs. I. Title. II. Series. DT146.S54 1993 962M602-dc20 92-34084 CIP ISBN 0 521 43209 X hardback ISBN 0 52189429 8 paperback Contents Preface List of abbreviations List of short references to frequently cited works Note on transcription and dates 1 2 3 4 5 Introduction Sufism and the people Al-Bakrl's biography of Muhammad The festival of Nawruz: a world turned upside down The politics and "moral economy" of the Cairene crowd Popular culture and high culture in medieval Cairo Appendix: Sufi shaykhs in Mamluk Cairo Notes Select bibliography Index page ix xii xiii xv 1 9 23 40 52 67 79 83 136 143 vn Preface "La culture arabe medievale est une culture d'elite, done de classe", wrote a student of medieval Arabic literature in the late seventies. It was statements of this sort, or presumably more the general character of works written in the field of Islamic studies, which led Ernest Gellner, abo