Contents:
Zaydism, too, originated in the events of transmission, and literary styles.
The conclusions the Companions without abandoning their support of of these studies are mixed. By contrast, the same data allow the accused those opposed of committing apostasy. First, it is based on historiographical and her- dle of the eighth century. According to Haider, this shift of the early Islamic period.
The Barber of Damascus: Stanford, overview of the scholarly work on the subject and makes Calif.: Stanford University Press, He judiciously treads the path of recent promising achieve- Once a black hole in Ottoman historiography when the ments in textual archeology as demonstrated by debunked Ottoman decline paradigm reigned, the eigh- Harald Motzki in particular, but also Iftikhar Zaman, teenth century is now the subject of vibrant histories.
Furthermore, Sajdi en- persons excluded from the traditional form. In this riches our understanding of Ottoman social and cul- sense, non-dominant voices are recovered in this highly tural history by taking us into the world of a single writ- unique text. Sajdi concedes that we will never know how er: This close text work is most prevalent in chap- Covering the years — C. Reviews " The Barber of Damascus brings to life a world of unexpected writers of history.
Ibn Budayr and his work as barber and historian disrupt our notions of genre and give us a marvelous portrait of Damascus in the eighteenth century. Most of all, readers will appreciate the introduction to the social world of an ordinary barber.
The Barber of Damascus offers the first full-length microhistory of an individual commoner in Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant. The Barber of Damascus: Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant [Dana Sajdi] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.
In fashioning this "working-class" biography, Sajdi's book is a real achievement, the first of its kind in so carefully exploring the cultural and literary universe of an ordinary artisan from the premodern Middle East. The importance of Sajdi's book lies beyond the manuscript of the barber. She has identified a new genre of history writing among a new breed of authors spread throughout Bilad al-Sham.
Sajdi's most innovative contribution to the existing historiography of Ottoman Syria and Arabo-Islamic history writing is her scrupulous attention to the distinctive literary markers of these texts. The Barber of Damascus will hold its own as a work that enriches our understanding of the 18th century while also identifying key continuities between the periods that precede and follow it. Her zeal in comparing passages and indicating discrepancies in Ibn Budayr's original and edited copies is amazing.
Dana Sajdi is to be complimented for producing this impressive book which is a joy to read in its elegant style. It is an analytical case history, fully documented and thoroughly investigated, and constitutes a major contribution to Middle Eastern socio-cultural studies.
There is much fascinating material in The Barber of Damascus for readers interested in the history of literary genres. Dana Sajdi is a talented scholar.
An erudite work of impeccable scholarship. Surely, Sajdi's masterpiece shall be taught alongside [other] masterful works of microhistory to rightly place the social history of the Ottoman Empire in conversation with the history of Europe. Scholars can only build a world history by escaping the temporal hold of the nineteenth century on the one hand and the spatial trap of Western European cities on the other.