Itineraires d'Orient: Hommages a Claude Cahen.

• Author: Petry, Carl F.
• Position: Review

Edited by RAOUL CURIEL and RIKA GYSELEN. Res Orientales, vol. 6. Bures-sur-Yvette, France: GROUPE POUR L'ETUDE DE LA CIVILISATION DU MOYEN-ORIENT, 1995. Pp. 442. [Distr. by Peeters Press, Louvain.]

This collection of essays was organized to commemorate Claude Cahen's distinguished career. Its editors emphasize that Cahen was not enthusiastic over the prospect of a "Festschrift" in his honor, but was ultimately persuaded by his colleagues to participate in planning the volume and selecting its contributors. The volume itself appeared three years after Cahen's death in November 1991. The editors divided the essays among five subject categories to reflect the range of Cahen's scholarly pursuits: I. Studies in Oriental History, II. Economic History and Papyrology, III. History of the Crusades, IV. Medieval Turkey, V. Oriental Sources. Thirty-one individuals prepared essays which range in scope from analyses of minute topics to studies that reflect on broad historiographical issues. The volume concludes with a retrospective on Cahen's life: "Itineraire d'une vie," written by his son, Michel. No bibliography of Cahen's publications is included since one is to appear in a commemorative issue of Arabica (volume and date not provided).

Predictable in a composite work, the substance, if not the quality, of the essays varies to such an extent that no unified theme is conveyed. Yet the diversity of topics discussed, frequently by eminent authorities, establishes the volume's credibility as a scholarly work and testimonial to Claude Cahen's stature. The section on oriental history begins with an essay by David Ayalon on the building program of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. Qala un (1309-40) as a prime cause of Cairo's subsequent decline. Ayalon argues that al-Nasir Muhammad's lavish architectural agenda masked serious defects stemming from his alternating policies of promotion and persecution inflicted upon the Mamluk elite. These defects allegedly set the stage for the fiscal and military instability that ensued after his demise. Ayalon admits (p. 14, col. 1) that ". . . it is much easier to ascertain the Sultan's role than the role of other factors which undoubtedly existed." These "other factors," such as the impact of plague epidemics or shifts in the foreign balance of power, are indeed vital to an objective understanding of complexities surrounding the sultanate's eventual decline.

Jacqueline Chabbi's essay on representation of the past during the early periods of Caliphal historiography confronts elusive problems of reconstructing the Koranic age. She focuses on al-Tabari's depiction of Zoroaster (1st ed., II: 648; Dir al-Kutub ed., I: 540), who is cast as a disciple of a follower of the biblical prophet Jeremiah. Gerard Dedeyan reveals the ethnic diversity of eastern...