In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt.

• Author: Amitai, Reuven
• Position: Review

In the Vicinity of the Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in Late Medieval Egypt. By CHRISTOPHER S. TAYLOR. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1999. Pp. xi + 264. HFI 159, $93.50.

This interesting and well-written book is an important Contribution to the social and religious history of Egypt in the Mamluk period (and immediately beforehand), as well as the whole matter of "sainthood" and the visitation of tombs in Islam. We learn not only about the physical makeup of the Vast Qarafa cemeteries to the east and southeast of Cairo, but also of the norms and boundaries of saint worship by Muslims, and their intimate relationship with these deceased holy figures.

Much of the book is based on a close reading of four pilgrimage guides written in Egypt in the late middle ages. The earliest was composed ca, A.D. 1200 and the last towards the end of the fifteenth century, i.e., from the Ayyubid to late Mamluk times. They were "meant to survey the Qarafa systematically and to clarify the location of particular sites that mystics and fellow scholars should visit" (p. 234). Taylor has culled these works--occasionally supplemented by information from biographical dictionaries, chronicles and topographical works--to draw composite portraits of the saints and those who sought their blessings.

The first chapter gives us a clear sense of the physical dimension of the cemetery, filled with the numerous tombs of holy men and women of greater and lesser repute, as well as countless obscure and nameless folk. The maps and photographs are a great help, even to someone who has spent some time in these environs. The next chapter describes in detail the ziyara itself, variant from instance to instance. It is suggested that this rite emerged in Egypt in the aftermath of the Fatimid demise, and is part of the larger Sunni revival. An interesting interpretation is made, following the works of Victor Turner, that the pilgrimage to saints' tombs is a liminal phenomenon, meaning that these were marginal areas--physically and socially--where normal social boundaries are broken down, permitting a temporary but important sense of communitas between members of different social groups.

The next two chapters give us a view of the saints themselves and what tangible blessing (baraka) could be derived from a visit to their tombs. In a sense, this is a "normative" view, as presented mainly by the four above-described ziyara guides, written by "experts" who stemmed from the...