Ritual, Politics, and the City of Fatimid Cairo.

AuthorStewart, Devin J.

Focusing on processions, protocol, architecture, and urban geography, this work explains court ritual in Fatimid Egypt (358-567/969-1171) as an expression of political and religious authority which both reflected and shaped the complex relationships between the caliphs, the administration, and the urban populace in medieval Cairo and Fustat. Sanders insightfully analyzes Fatimid caliphal ceremonies as a combination of their "ritual lingua franca," i.e., "ceremonies of broad appeal and little if any explicit Isma ili content" (pp. 81-82, 135, et passim) and Isma ili ideology, rather stressing the former over the latter. Chapter 3, "The Ritual City" (pp. 39-82), shows how the celebrations of Ramadan, id al-fitr, and id al-adha contributed to rewriting the urban map, by incorporating Fustat into Cairo as ritual political capital, beginning with the reign of al-Hakim (386-411/996-1020). Chapter 4, "Politics, Power and Administration" (pp. 83-98), argues that the Nawruz or New Year's procession asserted the caliph's position as leader of both the army and the administration, contradicting in symbolic terms the actual situation, particularly from the fifth/eleventh century on, when the vizier wielded most of the power. Chapter 5, "The Urban River" (pp. 99-119), treats the incorporation of the Nile into the ritual capital, further linking Fustat and Cairo, through such ceremonies as the perfuming of the Nilometer and the cutting of the Cairo canal. Discussion of the Isma ili or Shi i ideological content of Fatimid ritual is for the most part limited to chapter 6, "Ceremonial as Polemic" (pp. 121-34), which focuses on the Festival of Ghadir Khumm (18 Dhu 'l-hijjah), commemorated by Shi is for the Prophet Muhammad's designation of Ali as future leader of the Muslim community. In an excellent analysis, Sanders argues that this festival began as a popular celebration in the early Fatimid period, then developed into a government-sponsored celebration much like that of id al-adha, with little or no sectarian content, then was appropriated and rendered an expression of Hafizi legitimacy after the schism following the assassination of al-Amir in 524/1130. The work thus follows a common tendency in scholarship on Fatimid history to deemphasize the public Shi ism of the period. While this conception is probably valid on the whole, it should be recognized that modern scholars necessarily view Fatimid history through the lens of Mamluk historians, who...

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