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Unveiling the harem : elite women and the paradox of seclusion in eighteenth-century Cairo / Mary Ann Fay.
Author
Fay, Mary Ann
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
1st ed.
Published/Created
Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, ©2012.
Description
1 online resource (344 pages)
Availability
Available Online
JSTOR DDA
Ebook Central Perpetual, DDA and Subscription Titles
Details
Subject(s)
Households
—
Egypt
—
Cairo
—
History
—
18th century
[Browse]
Harems
—
Egypt
—
Cairo
—
History
—
18th century
[Browse]
Mamelukes
—
Social conditions
—
18th century
[Browse]
Women
—
Egypt
—
Cairo
—
Social conditions
—
18th century
[Browse]
Cairo (Egypt)
—
Social life and customs
—
18th century
[Browse]
Series
Middle East studies beyond dominant paradigms
[More in this series]
Medium/Support
polychrome. rdacc http://rdaregistry.info/termList/RDAColourContent/1003
Summary note
There is a long history in the West of representing Middle Eastern women as uniformly oppressed by Islam, by Islamic law, and by men. Stereotypical views of Middle Eastern women today maintain that they are without legal rights, do not attend universities or have jobs outside their homes, and are not full citizens of their countries because they cannot vote or hold public office. Similar misinformation circulated in the eighteenth century when European male travellers to Egypt, documenting their observations, depicted harem women as sexual objects, deprived of autonomy, and held captive by their husbands. Fay's Unveiling the Harem offers a persuasive corrective to this distorted view of Middle Eastern women. Instead of the odalisque of nineteenth-century painting and the fevered imaginings of European travellers, historical research reveals that elite women in powerful, wealthy households exercised their rights under Islamic law, property rights in particular, to become owners of lucrative real estate in Cairo as well as influential members of their families and the wider society. One such woman, Sitt Nafisa, who was literate in several languages, commissioned a public water fountain and a Qur'anic school that still stands today. She played a pivotal role as the intermediary between French officials and her husband, who was leading the revolt against the French from Upper Egypt. Based on documents from various archives in Cairo, including records of women's property ownership, repeated visits to eighteenth-century palaces and their family quarters, and textual reconstruction's of the elite residential neighbourhoods of the city, Unveiling the Harem presents a lucid and historically grounded portrait of Egyptian women, stripped of the powerless victim narrative that is still with us today.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Source of description
Print version record.
Contents
Reimagining the harem: from orientalist fantasies to historical reconstruction
Egypt in the eighteenth century: the transition from the medieval to the early modern
Slaves in the family: Islam, household slavery, and the construction of kinship
The Mamluk household: how a house became a home
Mamluk women and the Egyptian economy: a comparative perspective on women's property rights
The city as text: space, gender, and power in Cairo
The architecture of seclusion: in search of the historical harem
Everyday life in the harem
Changing the subject: gender and the history of the Mamluk revival
Epilogue.
Show 7 more Contents items
ISBN
9780815651703 ((electronic bk.))
0815651708 ((electronic bk.))
OCLC
859674267
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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Other versions
Unveiling the harem : elite women and the paradox of seclusion in eighteenth-century Cairo / Mary Ann Fay.
id
9971911213506421
Unveiling the harem [electronic resource] : elite women and the paradox of seclusion in eighteenth-century Cairo / Mary Ann Fay.
id
99125343300406421