Egyptian Society Under Ottoman Rule: 1517-1798.

• Author: Crecelius, Daniel

This panoramic view of social groups in Ottoman Egypt includes an historical background and separate chapters on the ruling class, the bedouins, the ulama, the sufis, popular religion, the ashraf, the dhimmis, and a broad survey of life in Ottoman Cairo. The authorities to follow the development of (these) central social groups throughout the period, describing and interpreting the changes" (p. xiv). A common theme coursing through the book relates to the ethnic and cultural tensions between the Ottoman and Mamluk elites and between Turkish-speaking foreigners and Arabic-speaking Egyptians. The author admits to the book having some serious structural flaws and to his inability, due to the present state of our knowledge, to include a chapter on the peasants (pp. xiv-xv), but he might have also considered the roles of the Maghribis, the Turks and the Syrians in Egypt, for which some studies are available. The author's concluding chapter of 1 1/4 pages seems all too brief and general.

Winter has assembled an impressive range of archival and manuscript sources, particularly Arabic, French, and Turkish, but also Hebrew. Although he was unable to consult Egyptian archival sources, he utilized a large number of Arabic and Turkish manuscript histories and a broad range of materials from the rich central archives in Istanbul. Some of the material in four chapters has been published previously, but has been updated and revised for the present publication. Since some of this material was originally published in Hebrew, we are thankful to have it available now in English.

Winter remarks that the social order in the Mamluk state was rigid and hierarchical, while society under Ottoman rule was more fluid (p. xiii). He attributes the growth of the guild system and the proliferation of sufi orders in Egypt to Ottoman rule and example (p. 253) and sees an emerging Egyptian consciousness as being responsible for "the centrality of al-Azhar, the emergence of the Shaykh al-Azhar, the advent of both Muslim religious elites and popular leaders - ulama, Sufis and ashraf, as well as the...