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

by Sanders, Paula

• ISBN13: 9789774160950
• ISBN10: 9774160959
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-11-07
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press

Summary

'œIn many areas it 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 . . .. [C]overs familiar territory in a totally new manner.' '” Jere Bacharach, University of Washington 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: namely, 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. Sanders explores such varied topics as the British experience in India, the Egyptian debate over religious reform, and the influence of The Thousand and One Nights on European notions of the medieval Arab city. 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.

Author Biography

Paula Sanders is dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies and associate professor of history at Rice University.

Table of Contents

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