Making Cairo Medieval

Contributions by Heba Farouk Ahmed, Khaled Fahmy, Derek Gregory, Nairy Hampikian, May al-Ibrashy, Donald Preziosi, Caroline Williams Edited by Nezar AlSayyad, Irene A. Bierman, Nasser Rabbat

Not available to order

Publication date:

17 March 2005

Length of book:

280 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739109168

During the nineteenth century, Cairo witnessed once of its most dramatic periods of transformation. Well on its way to becoming a modern and cosmopolitan city, by the end of the century, a 'medieval' Cairo had somehow come into being. While many Europeans in the nineteenth century viewed Cairo as a fundamentally dual city—physically and psychically split between East/West and modern/medieval—the contributors to the provocative collection demonstrate that, in fact, this process of inscription was the result of restoration practices, museology, and tourism initiated by colonial occupiers. The first edited volume to address nineteenth-century Cairo both in terms of its history and the perception of its achievements, this book will be an essential text for courses in architectural and art history dealing with the Islamic world.

Chapter 1 Prologue: The Project of Making Cairo Medieval Part 2 A Medieval City for a Modern World Chapter 3 Disciplining the Eye: Perceiving Medieval Cairo Chapter 4 The Medieval Link: Maqrizi's Khitat and Modern Narratives of Cairo Chapter 5 'Ali Mubarark's Egypt: Between the Testimony of 'Alamuddin and the Imaginary of the Khitat Part 6 Representing and Narrating Chapter 7 Performing Cairo: Orientalism and the City of the Arabian Nights Chapter 8 Nineteenth-Century Images of Cairo: From the Real to the Interpretive Chapter 9 The Museum of What You Shall Have Been Part 10 Disciplining and Making Chapter 11 Nineteenth-Century Cairo: A Dual City? Chapter 12 Modernizing Cairo: A Revisionist Narrative Chapter 13 Medievalization of the Old City as an Ingredient of Cairo's Modernization: Case Study of Bab Zuwayla Chapter 14 The Cemeteries of Cairo and the Comité de Conservation

Making Cairo Medieval will fascinate any scholar who cares about cities, their histories, their transformations, and efforts to control them. It was French specialists and amateurs at the 1867 Paris Exposition who first designated a specific area as 'Islamic Cairo,' though Cairenes soon became active agents. While historic preservation was the ostensible goal, artistic classifications, historical knowledge, cultural hierarchies, urban design, property ownership, tourism, and colonial power all played a role, giving a distinct orientalist tone to the enterprise. The essays offer an illuminating variety of perspectives on the cultural, architectural, political, economic, and intellectual intentions and effects of this immense, ongoing urban project.