L'Egypre fatimide: Son art et son historie.

• Author: Walker, Paul E.
• Position: Reviews of Books

L'Egypre fatimide: Son art et son historie. Edited by MARIANNE BARRUCAND. Paris: PRESSES DE L'UNIVERSITE DE PARIS-SORBONNE, 1999. Pp. 704. FF 345.

In late May of 1998 just about everyone actively interested in or now doing scholarly work on the history, art, and archaeology of the Fatimids and their era gathered together in Paris for a grand conference on the many dimensions of this subject. Organized by Marianne Barrucand in the aftermath of a successful exhibit of Fatimid art (Tresors fatimides du Caire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, this assembly of scholars has now produced with admirable speed, again under the direction of Barrucand, a substantial volume containing the papers presented at the same meeting. (With special foresight the present reviewer was not asked to participate in the conference, precisely in order that there would be someone left in the field of Fatimid studies who could write a critical assessment of the proceedings that came out of it.)

In all there are fifty-two individual contributions in this volume, in either English or French, on a vast array of topics, arranged in separate sections on political and ideological aspects of Fatimid policy, on monuments and their inscriptions, archaeology and artifacts in museum collections, iconography and epigraphy, book arts and sources, funerary arts, the sciences (including music), Christian and Jewish communities under the Fatimids, and external relations. The full range of what this collection comprises, however, goes beyond these categories. It is not, moreover, confined to Egypt, despite the title of the book itself. Several papers deal with Fatimid influence quite outside of Egypt--for example, in the Yemen, Palestine, Syria, and Italy. There are several interesting articles on the Maghrib, as another example.

In terms of scholarship, the papers represent a similar diversity, from a highly original paper by Wilferd Madelung on the religious policy of the Fatimids toward their Sunni subjects in the Maghrib to a succinct and especially lucid recapitulation of his many earlier studies of Ibn Yunu by David King. But few, if any, lack special merit. There are, moreover, many surprises: items of unexpected interest, fascinating details of Fatimid arts and sciences, of minority communities, of external trade, the city of Tinnis, and much more. One major contribution of this volume is its breadth, covering and incorporating such a large scope, yet all within the general...