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In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo's Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century By Nelly Hanna Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003
One of the fastest growing fields of Middle Eastern history is that of Ottoman studies. Nelly Hanna's study of the middle class in sixteenth to eighteenth century Cairo is not only a specific and illuminating contribution to this trend, but as part of the series "Middle East Studies Beyond Dominant Paradigms" it imparts to the Ottoman category new dimensions and directions.
First, to the book itself. It was Hanna's discovery of an unknown and untitled literary manuscript written between 1153/1740 and 1179/1765 which became the kernel around which she has fashioned the thesis of this volume. The author, Muhammad ibn Hasan Abu Dhakir, never rich or famous, wrote no other known work, and appeared in no biographical dictionaries, but through his text Hanna was able to determine that he was well educated and well read, thought independently, and was articulate in his views. As a personal narrative, in its open and accessible style, and in its social comments that did not conform to dominant views, but which did reflect the concerns of a generation who lived through a period of flux, "the work stood in stark contrast to the better known texts of the period." Intrigued by the way its contents touched upon social, economic and cultural issues, Hanna pursued innovative research through court and probate records, waqf deeds, inventories, chronicles, biographies, and what Peter Gran in his Introduction calls "important works of secondary scholarship" to create a context for...