Mubarak Al-Sabah: Founder of Modern Kuwait 1896-1915, by B.J. Slot. London: Arabian Publishing, 2005. 461 pages, illustrations, bibliography, index. US$54.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-9544792-4-6

Abstract

Moving from the general to the specific, the physical to the human, Raymond then deals with the people of these cities. Though North African examples are given—a small chapter on a proposed reconstruction of Algiers on the eve of the French occupation in 1830, and a larger chapter on 18th century Constantine—his focus is on Cairo; ten of the remaining twelve chapters deal with aspects of this Egyptian city. There is conjecture on the population of Cairo and its neighborhoods in the fifteenth century, the eve of Raymond's period. He comes up with the number 200,000 in 1500, but admits it is only a best guess. A useful chapter elucidates his thesis that the Egyptian economy suffered only a little from European competition up to the end of the eighteenth century; it leans on his Artisans et Commercemants au Caire au Will ieme Steele (1974). Raymond is arguably at his best in describing and analyzing city communities. Sufi lodges, guilds, religious sects, each were organized with shaykhs reporting to the government on issues from law and order to taxes and market inspection. How it actually worked is detailed in Chapter 5, "Urban Networks and Popular Movements," a discussion of late eighteenth-early nineteenth century Cairo and Aleppo, supplemented by Chapter 13, "Quartiers et movements populiare au Caire au XVIII eme siecle" and "The Role of the Communities (Tawa'if) in the Administration of Cairo in the Ottoman Period." A study of the Christians of Aleppo, a community which grew and prospered in the Ottoman centuries, raises the question of why they did so, while for example the Copts of Egypt stagnated. The entanglement of soldiers (the Janissaries in particular) in merchandising and business is reviewed. That it led by the end of the eighteenth century to an incapacitated army is understood. Precisely how it developed thus is another question, and Raymond works through estate documents supplemented by traditional Egyptian historians to make some interesting observations on this score. He then returns to aspects of the physical structures of Cairo with "Architecture and Urban Development: Cairo During the Ottoman Period, 1517-1798," The Residential Districts of Cairo's Elite [1300-1800]," and "The Rab: A Type of Collective Housing in Cairo during the Ottoman Period." A piece of traditional historiography on ' AH al-Shadhili, an Egyptian historian useful for understanding the revolt of 1711 (al-Jabarti copied large sections of his work) is appended. Anything by Andre Raymond, with his broad perspective after years of fine research, is useful. This is a must buy for libraries and anyone working in the Ottoman Arab world. At the same time, a small note: the origin of these articles is not always clear. Some are expanded, sometimes original, versions of previously published articles, or unpublished lectures. They are published here in different type fonts, which implies publication somewhere. A note on the origins of each would be useful. Jon Mandaville Portland State University