Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo

Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization

by Boaz Shoshan

This is the first book-length study of popular culture in a medieval Islamic city. Dr. Shoshan draws together a wealth of Arabic sources to explore popular religion against the background of the growing influence of Sufism, an important biography of Muhammad that was suppressed by the learned, and the origins and popular practices of the annual Nawruz festival. He also assesses the political beliefs and economic expectations of the Carene commoners and the complex relationship between the culture of the elite and that of the people of Cairo.

148 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1993

Reviews

[Monica Mitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this short book, Boaz Shoshan addresses several aspects of life and popular entertainment in medieval Cairo. He argues that the image of continuous entertainment can seen as an alternative to the trials of daily life, by which Cairenes (and especially those on the lower rungs of the social ladder) sought to escape the horrors of economic and political hardships, epidemics and the cruelty of Mamlūk rule. The book does not focus on dhimmī communities, but its depiction of medieval Cairene culture provides an interesting overview of the world in which they would have interacted with Muslims.
The chapter I found most interesting is chapter three, which studies the popular celebrations of Nawrūz. The Egyptian (or more accurately, Coptic) Nawrūz differs from its Persian counterpart in that it is linked to the Coptic new year, and especially to the flooding of the Nile. Shoshan’s treatment of Nawrūz presents us with a different sort of encounter. It is an event firmly grounded in Egypt’s Coptic heritage that becomes a distinctive aspect of medieval Cairene culture. By medieval times, Nawrūz celebrations had developed into loud and rowdy carnival-type festivities, not only by Copts but by the majority of Cairenes. The festivities were especially marked by inversions of social roles and categories; wine and beer were openly drunk, violence was rampant, masquerades took place as did sexual transgressions. The common people elected an Emir of Nawrūz who would pass by the homes of dignitaries and demand the payment of “debts,” at the risk of mob violence. Shoshan analyzes these celebrations as sociocultural “safety valves” that allowed the populace to release its pent-up tensions. This way, these festive inversions operated like their counterparts in other cultures to preserve the social order.