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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Monthly supplement
Light on the underground
A quoi rêvent les loups (What Wolves Dream Of), Yasmina Khadra, Paris: Julliard 1999. pp274Into the abyss
Yasmina Khadra
All in the detail
Masters of the Trade: Crafts and Craftspeople in Cairo, Pascale Ghazaleh,1750-1850, Cairo Papers in Social Science Volume 22, Number 3, Fall 1999. pp157A serious spinster
Passionate Nomad, Jane Fletcher Geneisse, London: Chatto and Windus, 1999. pp402Written by camera
Ayam Al-Dimoqratiya: Al-Nisa' Al-Misriyat wa Homoum Al-Watan (Days of Democracy: Egyptian Women and National Elections), Ateyyat El-Abnoudy, Cairo: Kassem Press, 1999. pp197Bizarre, perhaps
The Bazaar, Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World, Text by Walter M. Weiss and photographs by Kurt-Michael Westermann, London: Thames & Hudson, 1999. pp256All about Egypt
Egypt: Nile, Desert, and People, Wolfgang and Rosel Jahn, Trans. by Manuela Kunkel and Ian Portman. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 1999. pp191 + 300 colour illustrationsThrough the mask of Yasmine
Layali Okhra (Other Nights), Mohamed El-Bisatie, Beirut: Al-Aadab Publishing House, 2000. pp180Photohgraphs of Egypt and the Holy land, Francis Frith, Zeitouna Publishing, 1999 --see caption--
To the editor
At a glance
A shorthand guide to the month compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani* Hikmet Al-Missriyeen (The Wisdom of Egyptians), introduced and edited by Mohamed El-Sayed Said, Cairo: The Cairo Centre for Human Rights, 1999. pp273
* Ashr Sanawat maa Farouq (Ten Years with Farouq), Karim Thabit, Cairo: Al-Shorouq, 2000. pp472 (Adel Hammouda and Me), Ahmed Fouad Negm, Cairo: Zeinab Publishing House, 2000. pp108
* Mirayat Al-Dhat Al-Okhra (Mirror of the Other Self), Sabri Hafiz, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, Aswat Adabiya Series, 1999. pp365
* Moqarabat Al-Abad (Nearing Eternity), Gamal El-Ghitani, Cairo: Nahdit Misr Publications, 2000. pp96
* Al-Kotob: Wighat Nazar (Books: Viewpoints), monthly magazine, issue no. 13, February 2000 Cairo: The Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication
* Al-Fonoun Al-Sha'biya (The Folk Arts), a specialised periodical, issue no.58-9, Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation
* Al-Osour Al-Jadida (New Eras), monthly magazine, issue no. 5, February 2000, Cairo: Sinai Publishing House
* Nizwa, quarterly magazine, issue no.11, Oman: The Oman Institution for Journalism, Publication and Mass Communication
* Al-Hilal, monthly magazine, issue no. 2, February 2000, Cairo: Al-Hilal Publishing House
Books is a monthly supplement of Al-Ahram Weekly appearing every second Thursday of the month. We welcome contributions and letters on subjects raised in this supplement. Material may be edited for length and clarity; and should be addressed to Mona Anis, Books Editor, Al-Ahram Weekly, Galaa St., Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt; Faz: +202 578 6089; E-mail: m.anis@ahram.org.eg
For advertising call +202-5780233; Fax +202 394 1866To see other book supplements go to the ARCHIVES index.
Illustrations courtesy of International Commitee of the Red Cross
"Folk drawings and tales", Cairo, 1996
The Bazaar, Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World, Text by Walter M. Weiss and photographs by Kurt-Michael Westermann, London: Thames & Hudson, 1999. pp256Bizarre, perhaps
Reviewed by Denys Johnson-Davies
Such a book, clearly made to adorn expensive coffee-tables, could well be a photographic catalogue of the splendours of the more exotic bazaars of the Islamic world. It is, in fact, just this, though it has ambitions to be more. The pictures are for the most part exceptional, though it is the wide-ranging and over-ambitious text that seeks to rescue this publication from being just another coffee-table book.
The final section of the book has as its sub-title "Portraits of the Finest Bazaars" and deals with the bazaars of Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo, Istanbul, Sanaa, Dubai, Kairouan and Tunis, Marrakech and Fez, Shiraz and Isfahan, and Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. The article on Cairo begins by stating that "If you have never seen Cairo, you have not seen the world," though the writer continues by saying that the city's heyday was some 600 years ago and that today the Nile is polluted and the sweet-smelling air has been replaced by the pungent smell of exhaust fumes. We are then told that Cairo is the "quintessential fairy-tale Oriental city, due in part to its people's friendliness and zest for life and especially their love of story-telling and bargaining." As one continues reading the text one accustoms oneself to this hyperbolic style of writing while at the same time being entertained by much of the curious information provided. Thus, in the article about Dubai -- do its two small bazaars really qualify it for inclusion in this book? -- we are informed that this small sheikhdom imports no less than 10 per cent of the world's gold jewelry every year.
The first half of the book contains the most interesting material to be found in it. A chapter on the camel -- "God's greatest gift" -- tells us that it can cover 100 miles in a day, that it has to stop at a watering hole only every two weeks, that its lifespan is between 25 and 30 years and that the females give birth only up to 10 times in a lifetime. It also tells us that owing to the camel being inadequately endowed the reproductive act is accomplished only with difficulty. An interesting article describes the main trade routes of ancient times along which incense, amber, silk and gold were transported. Other side chapters deal with the centres for making silver and explain how it was that Jews became the leading silversmiths in such countries as Yemen and Morocco. There are also articles dealing with such subjects as perfume, medicine and magic, ceramics, and coffee, tobacco and sweetmeats.
In the chapter entitled "The Last Glass-blowers" we learn that the zabbalin children of Cairo provide the glass-blowers with their raw material for making vases, carafes, cups and beakers. The green objects are made mainly from Seven Up bottles, the clear glass from Pepsi or Coke bottles and the amber-coloured glassware from Stella beer bottles.
Metal goods on display in the old neighbourhoods of Cairo
The glass-blower's daily production of between one and two hundred pieces is made from some 30 kilogrammes of broken glass for which, we are told, the zabbalin, are paid 10 piastres per kilogramme. This sum is then converted into pounds sterling and dollars for the reader's benefit, and one realises that the text should read 10 Egyptian pounds and not 10 piastres per kilogramme. As one delves further into the book, concentrating on the text rather than the photographs, one's faith in the writer flags: he not only wallows in hyperbole but has little regard for accuracy. Described as the editor-in-chief of various publications including the Diners Club Magazine and the author of cultural and travel guides, he seems to lack the essential expertise for his present subject, which he treats in a many-faceted fashion. Thus the Arabic for a potters' wheel is given as "dulah", an obvious misprint for dulab, and brass Ramadan lamps are called "faranis" instead of fawanis. In the chapter on the camel referred to above, we are informed that the Arabic word for camel (jamal) can also mean a beautiful woman, "depending on the stress" -- whatever that means. The explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who is quoted several times, is on one occasion referred to as the "eminent Arabist", which he is not and has never claimed to be. Even the Koran and Prophetic Hadith are misquoted.
Am I perhaps being unfair to the book? Do coffee-table books have their own criteria? Should they not be subject to the accuracy demanded of other writings? Or perhaps coffee-table books are not to be scrutinised too closely and should be judged more cursorily. The present book certainly passes the test of being an object that can be taken up and leafed through with enjoyment.
