Table Of ContentMaking Big Money in 1600
Middle East Studies Beyond Dominant Paradigms
Peter Gran, Series Editor
Making Big Money
in 1600
The Life and Times
of Isma'il Abu Taqiyya,
Egyptian Merchant
N eIIy Hanna
Syracuse University Press
Copyright © 1998 by Syracuse University Press
Syracuse, New York 13244-5160
All Rights Reserved
First Edition
98 99 00 01 02 03 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration and maps photographed by Emad Allam.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Fublication Data
Hanna, Nelly.
Making big money in 1600 : the life and times of IsrnaMl Abu
Taqiyya, Egyptian merchant / Nelly Hanna. — 1st cd.
p. cm. — (Middle East studies beyond dominant paradigms)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8156-2749-1 (cloth : alk. paper).—ISBN 0-8156-2763-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Abu Taqiyya, Isma'il, d. 1625? 2. Merchants—Egypt—Biography.
3. Family—Egypt—History. 4. Egypt—Commerce—History. I. Title.
II. Series.
HC830.A539H36 1998
380. r 092
[B]—DC21 97-5469
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Maps / vii
Foreword / \x
Acknowledgments / xiii
Introduction; Sources and Method / xv
I. Perspectives on the Period / i
1. Merchants and Merchant Families / 15
3. The Structures of Trade / 43
4. Shifting Patterns in Trade / 70
5. Social Structures / 100
6. Shaping the Urban Geography / 119
7. Family Life in the Abu Taqiyya HousehoId / 138
8. Conclusion / 165
Appendix / 177
N otes / 179
Glossary / 191
Bibliography / 197
Index / 105
Maps
I. The Eastern Mediterranean / 3
1. Abu Taqiyya''s network of trade routes / 13
3. The northern section of Cairo / 49
4. Cairo / 134
VII
Nelly Hanna is an associate professor of Arabic studies at the American
University in Cairo. She is the author of An Urban History of Bulaq in the
Mamluk and Ottoman Periods the editor of The State and Its Servants:
Administration in ^gypt from Ottoman Times to the Present.
Foreword
Peter Gran
In this work by Professor Nelly Hanna, seventeenth-century Cairo turns
out to be a sophisticated trade and production center, its leading lights
well aware of the wider world. As would be the case in Europe (and
indeed in any classic European novel), Cairo’s men and women were
bound to, and torn apart from, each other by property. This picture does
not conform to the one we have come to expect: a backwater province in
a bygone era. The Ottoman presence in this century turns out to be quite
limited. Nor is an image presented that we might apprehend from the
Egypt of the Bible with its Oriental despot or Pharaoh. Through Hanna’s
study, we discover that, although a land system is present, the economy is
mercantile, artisanal, and tribal as well. Contrary to our expectations, the
urban middle strata are very powerful. Cairo is culturally diverse and in
our terms, multinational.
Although the specialist will appreciate this work for the new informa
tion it provides—and the information is quite new—the general reader
will find much that is fascinating in this book as well. The world presented
here eludes a sophisticated application of the dominant paradigm, such as
is found in world systems research.
Defying established assumptions concerning early modern history
about Egypt’s undeveloped society, Hanna overwhelms us with a moder
nity we don’t expect to find. In so doing, she uses Cairo to challenge and
test these assumptions and, consequently, the paradigm which historians
often call the “Rise of the West.” For this reason, Hanna’s book should
be widely read.
IX
X Foreword
In proposing the series “Beyond Dominant Paradigms,” I was thinking
about how our age is blessed or cursed by a recognition that its way of
conceiving its own past is inadequate and must give way to something
more comprehensive. What that comprehensive “something” is is not yet
apparent. What interests me is how should Middle East studies attempt to
contribute to this new, more comprehensive picture of world culture.
The paradigm followed by most contemporary historians studying the
past five hundred years can still be described as the “Rise of the West”
paradigm, a phrase taken from the well-known book by William McNeill.
These scholars perceived northwest Europe to have been responsible for
changing the world and moving it forward. This paradigm and its support
ers emphasize the role of Europe firom the Italian Renaissance onward,
incorporating into the process the German Reformation and the economic
development occurring first in Holland, then in France, and finally in
England. What much of the new generation of historians (Nelly Hanna
among them) is reacting to is a sense of dissatisfaction with the “Rise of
the West” paradigm. Even if a particular study highlights something else
altogether, it is made to conform to the contours of the history of north
west Europe.
To its critics then, this paradigm has enjoyed a rather illegitimate
prestige that has allowed it to ride roughshod over areas where its flawed
premises help obscure reality. One such area is the Mediterranean. For
some years, the theory of sudden stagnation, i.e., the Baroque period,
invented to explain the collapse of a mighty Spain, has troubled scholars.
For some years, Italian historians have complained about the Italian Re
naissance as well. Italian history and culture do not benefit from being
periodized this way. More recendy, questions have been rdsed about 1798
and the “Coming of the West” to Egypt and to the Middle East. Egyptian
history is not so stagnant that it needs to be stirred up by a Napoleon.
Indeed, as one progresses further and further away from the privileged
terrain of northwest Europe, the defects of the paradigm become clearer
and clearer.
If sugar, slaves, and other commodities in the Atlantic bring a higher
revenue than textiles and spices in the Mediterranean, does the Mediterra
nean really become a backwater, irrelevant to the conceptualization of the
modern world? Does bigger mean more modern? Does what is more
modern displace what is more traditional? Have we abandoned vassalage,
tax-farming, mercantilism, etc., or do these conditions live on under dif
ferent names?
Description:This text examines the re-emergence of the economic sector in Cairo during the 17th century, and its complex influences on social conditions. It traces the relationship between economic activities and culture through examining the life and work of Isma'il Abu Taqiyya - an Egyptian merchant.
