Orientalist and Revisionist Histories of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti

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Notes

¹ Arnold Toynbee (1948) Civilization on Trial (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 77.

² David Ayalon (1960) The historian al-Jabarti and his background, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 23(2), p. 218.

³ For a discussion of the different versions of al-Jabarti's chronicles, see Lars Bjørneboe (2007) In Search of the True Political Position of the ’Ulama: An Analysis of the Aims and Perspectives of the Chronicles of Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, 1753–1825 (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press).

⁴ Brinkley Messick (1993) The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 2.

⁵ H. S. Deighton (1968) Some English sources for the study of modern Egyptian history, in: P. M. Holt (ed.), Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt (London: Oxford University Press), p. 60; and (1968), The impact of Egypt on Britain: A study of public opinion, in: Holt, (ed.), Political and Social Change, pp. 235–237.

⁶ Edward W. Lane (1871) An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th edn (London: John Murray), p. 273; and (1889) The Thousand and One Nights (London: Chatto and Windus), p. 61, n. 28.

⁷ A. Cardin (Ed.) (1838) Journal d'Abdurrahman Gabarti, pendant l'occupation française en Égypte: suivi d'un précis de la Même camagne (Paris: Dondey-Dupré).

⁸ Ayalon, The Historian al-Jabarti, pp. 222, 229.

⁹ Ayalon, The Hhstorian al-Jabarti, p. 229.

¹⁰ Ayalon, The Hhstorian al-Jabarti, pp. 229–230.

¹¹ Ami Ayalon (1992) Sihafa: The Arab Experiment in Journalism, Middle Eastern Studies, 28:2, p. 268.

¹² Jamal Mohammed Ahmed (1960) The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 18–19; Ami Ayalon (1995) The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 44–45, 130.

¹³ Gabriel Baer (1968) ‘Ali Mubarak's Khitat as a source for the history of modern Egypt, in: P. M. Holt (ed.), Political and Social Change, pp. 17, 25–26.

¹⁴ On the authenticity of these various manuscripts, see S. Moreh (1965) Reputed autographs of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti and related problems, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 28(3), pp. 524–540.

¹⁵ Zachary Lockman (2004) Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism (New York: Cambridge University Press), p. 68.

¹⁶ See, for example, D. B. MacDonald (1913) Al-Djabarti, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1, p. 986; J. Heyworth-Dunne (1938) Arabic literature in Egypt in the eighteenth century with some reference to the poetry and poets, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, 9, pp. 675–689.

¹⁷ Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, pp. 77, 103.

¹⁸ On this point, see Colin Heywood (2008) Fernand Braudel and the Ottomans: The emergence of an involvement (1928–50), Mediterranean Historical Review, 23(2), pp. 177–178.

¹⁹ Jane Hathaway (2004) Rewriting eighteenth-century Ottoman history, Mediterranean Historical Review, 19(1), p. 34. For a representative example of Holt's work using ‘Aja'ib al-athar, see P. M. Holt (1962) Al-Jabarti's introduction to the ishtory of Ottoman Egypt, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 25, pp. 38–51.

²⁰ H. A. R. Gibb & Harold Bowen (1950) Islamic Society and the West: A Study of the Impact of Western Civilization on Moslem Culture in the Near East, Vol. 1, Pt 1 (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 17, 216. Gibb and Bowen also extensively used al-Jabarti's chronicle in the second part of their work to discuss the role of the ulema, education, and taxation and finance in eighteenth-century Egypt.

²¹ Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, p. 76. For Toynbee's discussion of the decline of Ottoman Egypt using al-Jabarti's chronicle, see Arnold Toynbee (1955) A Study of History, Vol. 4 (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 458–462.

²² Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, pp. 105–106.

²³ Middle Eastern Affairs published on an array of political and cultural issues during its thirteen-year run. In a 1951 article discussing the intellectual development of modern Egypt, for instance, noted Egyptian reformer Salama Moussa casually remarked how al-Jabarti ‘lacked a real understanding of the great changes which had occurred and their historical significance. He believed in the miracles of holy men; his mental pattern was that of a medieval oriental type.’ See Salama Moussa (1951) Intellectual currents in Egypt, Middle Eastern Affairs, 2(8–9), p. 267. For a roughly similar view, see M. Mostafa Ziada (1953) Modern Egyptian historiography, Middle Eastern Affairs, 4(8–9), p. 266.

²⁴ Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, pp. 110, 124.

²⁵ Bernard Lewis and P. M. Holt (1962) Introduction, in: Bernard Lewis and P. M. Holt (eds) Historians of the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 16.

²⁶ See, for example, David Ayalon (1962) The historian al-Jabarti, in: Lewis and Holt (eds) Historians of the Middle East, pp. 391–402; Gamal El-Din El-Shayyal (1962) Historiography in Egypt in the nineteenth century in: Lewis and Holt (eds) Historians of the Middle East, pp. 403–421.

²⁷ See Ayalon, The historian al-Jabarti, pp. 217–249; and (1960) Studies in al-Jabarti I: Notes on the transformation of Mamluk society in Egypt under the Ottomans, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 3(2), pp. 148–174; and (1960) Studies in al-Jabarti I: Notes on the transformation of Mamluk society in Egypt under the Ottomans, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 3(3), pp. 275–325; and (1965) Al-Djabarti The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition, 2, pp. 355–357.

²⁸ Moreh, Reputed autographs of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti and related problems, p. 524. Moreh also published a translation of Tarikh muddat al-faransis bi-misr in 1975. See S. Moreh (ed.) (1975) Al-Jabarti's Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation of Egypt (Leiden: E. J. Brill).

²⁹ Shmuel Moreh (2001) Al Jabarti's method of composing his chronicle, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 25, p. 347.

³⁰ See for example, Mahmud Al-Sharqawi (1957) Misr fi'l qarn al-thamin ‘ashar: dirasat fi tarikh al-Jabarti [Egypt in the eighteenth century: Studies in the history of al-Jabarti] (Cairo: Maktabat al-Anjilu al-Misriyah); Muhammad Fu'ad Shukri (1958) Misr fi matla’ al-qarn al-tasi’ ‘ashar: 1807–1811 [Egypt at the beginning of the nineteenth century: 1807–1811], Vol. 3 (Cairo: Matba‘at Jami‘at al-Qahirah); and Muhammad Anis (1962) Madrasat al-tarikh al-misri fi'l ‘asr al-’uthmani [Schools of Egyptian history in the Ottoman age] (Cairo: Jami‘at al-Duwal al-‘Arabiyah, Ma‘had al-Dirasat al-‘Arabiyah al-‘Aliyah).

³¹ Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (1963) Arab Rediscovery of Europe: A Study in Cultural Encounters (Princeton University Press), p. 21.

³² Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (1963) Arab Rediscovery of Europe: A Study in Cultural Encounters (Princeton University Press), p. 155.

³³ Gamal El-Din El-Shayyal (1968) Some aspects of intellectual and social life in eighteenth-century Egypt, in Holt (ed.) Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt, p. 129. This 1965 conference self-consciously modeled itself after the one held in 1958 and featured the pioneering research of prominent scholars working on modern Egyptian historiography.

³⁴ Ismail K. Poonawala (1968) The evolution of al-Gabarti's historical thinking as reflected in the Muzhir and the ‘Aga'ib, Arabica: Revue D'études Arabes, 15, pp. 285, 288.

³⁵ Hathaway, Rewriting eighteenth-century Ottoman history, pp. 38–39.

³⁶ Aziz al-Azmeh (1981) Ibn Khaldun in Modern Scholarship: A Study in Orientalism (London: Third World Centre for Research and Publishing), pp. 46, 67–68.

³⁷ Aziz Al-Azmeh (1981) Ibn Khaldun in Modern Scholarship: A Study in Orientalism (London: Third World Centre for Research and Publishing), p. 44.

³⁸ Charles Wendell (1972) The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 115.

³⁹ Charles Wendell (1972) The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 82–83.

⁴⁰ C. E. Bosworth (1977) Al-Jabarti and the Frankish archaeologists, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 8(2), p. 231.

⁴¹ See, for example, the collected Arabic, English, and French articles in Ahmad ‘Izzat ‘Abd al-Karim (ed.) (1976) ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti: dirasat wa-buhuth [‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti: Studies and research] (Cairo: Al-Maktabah al-Arabiyah).

⁴² Hathaway, Rewriting eighteenth-century Ottoman history, p. 45.

⁴³ For a nuanced discussion of Said's influence on Middle East studies, see Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, pp. 182–214.

⁴⁴ Edward W. Said (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), p. 82.

⁴⁵ Edward W. Said (1978) Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books), p. 122.

⁴⁸ Peter Gran (1979) Islamic Roots of Capitalism in Egypt: 1760–1840 (Austin & London: University of Texas Press), p. 182. For a similar argument, see T. Philipp & M. Perlmann (1994) ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti's History of Egypt (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart), Vol. 1.

⁴⁹ Jack Crabbs (1984) The Writing of History in Nineteenth Century Egypt: A Study in National Transformation (Detroit: Wayne University Press), p. 52.

⁴⁶ Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East, pp. 179–180.

⁴⁷ Peter Gran (1979) Islamic Roots of Capitalism in Egypt: 1760–1840 (Austin & London: University of Texas Press), p. 73.

⁵⁰ Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism, p. 71.

⁵¹ Crabbs, The Writing of History, p. 27.

⁵² Daniel Crecelius (1981) The Roots of Modern Egypt: A Study of ‘Ali Bey al-Kabir and Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab, 1760–1775 (Minneapolis & Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica), p. 39, n. 4.

⁵³ Daniel Crecelius (1981) The Roots of Modern Egypt: A Study of ‘Ali Bey al-Kabir and Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab, 1760–1775 (Minneapolis & Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica), pp. 43, 87, 94, 109, 164–165. In this respect, Crecelius engaged in a fastidious exercise characteristic of al-Jabarti scholarship. See, for example, John W. Livingston (1970) The rise of Shaykh ‘Ali Bey al-Kabir: A study in the accuracy of the chronicle of al-Jabarti, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 33(2), pp. 283–294.

⁵⁴ Crecelius, The Roots of Modern Egypt, pp. 144, 181–182.

⁵⁵ Ami Ayalon (1987) Language and Change in the Arab Middle East: The Evolution of Modern Political Discourse (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 11, 17.

⁵⁶ Timothy Mitchell (1988) Colonising Egypt (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 37, 133.

⁵⁷ Daniel Crecelius (ed.) (1990), Eighteenth Century Egypt: The Arabic Manuscript Sources (Claremont: Regina Books), pp. 4–5; and see also, (1990) Masadir tarikh al-Jabarti fi awakhir al-qarn al-sabi ‘ashar wa-awa'il al-qarn al-thamin ‘ashar [Sources for al-Jabarti's history at the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth century], Revue d'Histoire Maghrébine, 17(57–58), pp. 455–462.

⁵⁸ Jane Hathaway (1997) The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdağlıs (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 27–28, 172. In another monograph, Hathaway continued to warn against relying on conventional narrative sources such as al-Jabarti's chronicle; See (2003) A Tale of Two Factions: Myth, Memory, and Identity in Ottoman Egypt and Yemen (Albany: State University of New York Press), pp. 18–19.

⁶² ‘Abd al-Rahman Al-Jabarti (1993) Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti's Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation, 1798, Shmuel Moreh (tran.), introduction by Robert Tignor (Princeton & New York: Markus Wiener Publishing), p. 184

⁵⁹ P. M. Holt (1968) Ottoman Egypt (1517–1798): An Account of Arabic Historical Sources, in Holt (ed.), Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt, pp. 3.

⁶⁰ The publishing company Steiner Verlag Stuttgart translated ‘Aja'ib al-athar into English for the first time in 1994 and another four-volume Arabic translation of the chronicle appeared in 1997–1998. See Thomas Philipp and Moshe Perlmann (trans) (1997–1998) ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti's History of Egypt: ‘Aja'ib al-athar fi'l-tarajim wa'l-akhbar, 4 vols. in 2, (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart); ‘Abd al-Rahim ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Abd al-Rahim and ‘Abd al-‘Azim Muhammad Ibrahim Ramadan (eds) (1997–1998) ‘Aja'ib al-athar fi'l-tarajim wa'l-akhbar, 4 vols. (Cairo: Matba‘at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyah).

⁶¹ ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1993) Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti's Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation, 1798, Shmuel Moreh (tran.), introduction by Robert Tignor (Princeton & New York: Markus Wiener Publishing), p. 184.

⁶³ Shmuel Moreh (2003) Napoleon and the French impact on Egyptian society in the eyes of al-Jabarti, in: Irene A. Bierman (ed.) Napoleon in Egypt (Reading: Ithaca Press), pp. 93–94.

⁶⁴ Shmuel Moreh (2003) Napoleon and the French impact on Egyptian society in the eyes of al-Jabarti, in: Irene A. Bierman (ed.) Napoleon in Egypt (Reading: Ithaca Press), pp. 77, 80.

⁶⁵ Moreh, Al Jabarti's method of composing his chronicle, p. 366.

⁶⁶ Stefan Reichmuth (2001) Notes on Murtada al-Zabidi's Mu‘jam as a source for al-Jabarti's history, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 25, p. 374.

⁶⁷ Al-Jabarti, Napoleon in Egypt, pp. 3, 5. For similar views see Crecelius, Eighteenth Century Egypt, p. 127; Husayn ‘Asi (1993) ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti: mu'arrikh al-sidam al-hadari al-awwal bayn al-sharq wa-al-gharb fi al-asr al-hadith [‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti: Historian of the first civilizational clash between the East and the West in the modern age] (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyah,); and Thomas Philipp and Guido Schwald (1994) A Guide to ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti's History of Egypt: ‘Aja'ib al-athar fi'l-tarajim wa'l-akhbar (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart), p. 9.

⁶⁸ These anti-colonial methodologies manifested themselves most notably in US classrooms. See, for example, Edmund Burke (2002) History 154: The Mediterranean in the modern era, 1492–1939. < UC Santa Cruz Registrar, Winter 2002.> Available at: http://reg.ucsc.edu/soc/aci/winter2002/his.html, accessed January 9, 2009; Nicole Mares (2008) History 114: History of Western civilization II. Indiana University, Spring 2008. Available at: http://mypage.iu.edu/∼nmares/Spring_2008_H114.htm, accessed January 9, 2009; and Daniel Varisco (2008) HUHC culture and expression. Hofstra University, Spring 2008. Available at: http://people.hofstra.edu/daniel_m_varisco/huhcrag2.html, accessed January 9, 2009.

⁶⁹ Al-Jabarti, Napoleon in Egypt, p. 13.

⁷⁰ Juan R.I. Cole (2003) Mad Sufis and civic Ccourtesans: The French Republican construction of eighteenth-century Egypt, in: Irene A. Bierman (ed.) Napoleon in Egypt, p. 50. For a similar discussion see Philip Dwyer (2008) Napoleon: The Path to Power (New Haven & London: Yale University Press), pp. 376–377.

⁷¹ Juan Cole (2007) Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 205, 33, 217.

⁷² Paul Strathern (2007) Napoleon in Egypt: ‘The Greatest Glory’ (London: Jonathan Cape), p. 433, n. 18.

⁷³ Paul Strathern (2007) Napoleon in Egypt: ‘The Greatest Glory’ (London: Jonathan Cape), pp. 200–201. For a similar view criticizing al-Jabarti's ‘scorn and contempt’ of the French and their scientific experiments, see J. W. Livingston (1997) Shaykhs Jabarti and ‘Attar: Islamic reaction and response to western science in Egypt, Der Islam, 74, pp. 93–96.

⁷⁴ In contrast, Sabri al-‘Adl views both al-Jabarti and his father as scientific observers and participants who took a keen interest in astronomy. Al-‘Adl also notes that al-Jabarti's work suggests that the study of astronomy grew and developed at the end of the eighteenth century, albeit with different levels of knowledge and expertise. See Sabri al-‘Adl (2005) The study of astronomy according to the chronicle of al-Jabarti, in: Nelly Hanna and Raouf Abbas (eds) Society and Economy in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1600–1900 (Cairo: New York: The American University in Cairo Press), pp. 181–200.

⁷⁵ Bjørneboe, In Search of the True Political Position of the ’Ulama, pp. 287–330.

⁷⁶ See, for example, Muhammad Anis (1964) Mu'arrikh muhjal sabiqa al-Jabarti [The singular historian prior to al-Jabarti], Al-Hilal, 7, pp. 34–44; and (1964) Al-Jabarti: a'zam al-mu'arrikhin [Al-Jabarti: The Greatest of the Historians] Al-Hilal, 9, pp. 118–127.

⁷⁷ Quoted in Ayalon, Sihafa, pp. 259, 277.

⁷⁸ See, for example, Ahmad Ghareeb (2007) Tarikh al-Jabarti. Available at: http://www.ahmadghareeb.com/?q = node/26, accessed January 21, 2009.

⁷⁹ See, for example, Muzaffar Iqbal (2004) The Napoleonic origins of two centuries of Muslim suffering. Available at: http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/features04/mus-napoleonic.htm, accessed January 21, 2009; see also Salah Zaimeche (2007) Muslim historians. Available at: http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/Muslim_Historians.pdf, accessed January 21, 2009.

⁸⁰ See, for example, Google (2009) Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. Available at: http://www.google.com/search?q = abd+al-rahman+al-jabarti&ie = utf-8&oe = utf-8&aq = t&rls = org.mozilla:en-US:official&client = firefox-a, accessed January 9, 2009; see also Yahoo (2009) Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. Available at: http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei = UTF-8&fr = yfp-t-821&p = %2Babd+al-rahman+al-jabarti&fr2 = sp-qrw-orig-top&norw = 1, accessed January 9, 2009; and Microsoft (2009) Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. Available at: http://www.bing.com/search?mkt = en-US&q = abd%20al-rahman%20al- jabarti&FORM = BMMENO, accessed June 3, 2009.

⁸¹ Wikipedia (2009) Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahman_al-Jabarti, accessed June 7, 2009. Different versions of this rudimentary entry also exist in Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and Polish; see also Walter Armbrust (2009) Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. Available at: http://www.answers.com/abd%20al-rahman%20al-jabarti, accessed January 21, 2009.