Since several years Egyptian historiography is changing in a profound way. A new generation of Historians is revisiting the heritage of the nationalist and Marxist schools of historical writing in Egypt through a set of new questions and methods. While nationalist historical writing during much of the 20th Century focused on questions of state-, nation- and identitybuildingsince Muhammed Ali (1805-1848) and on the rise of the national movement and its struggle against colonial domination, Marxist historiography since the 1950s had introduced new objects, like popular history or the structures of society and state. A younger generation of Egyptian Historians refocus their research to questions like the relationship between state and society, between religion and society, between elites and ordinary people, and between the local and the global. While much of Egyptian History in the past has been written through the perspective of colonial archives, younger Egyptian historians build their research on thorough investigations of local archival material. Many of these inquiries investigate the pre-Napoleonic and pre-Muhammed Ali Ottoman Period in Egypt.
This workshop offered an introduction and illustration of these new methods and stakes in the writing of Egyptian history, with a focus on archival resources, methods of investigation and heuristic paradigms. The workshop was conceived as an occasion to present and discuss ongoing research on the Ottoman period between Egyptian and German based researchers.
Schedule:
Session 1
9.30 am – 12.30 pm
Introduction: Dr. Nora Lafi (researcher, ZMO, and co-chair of the Cities Compared research field of EUME), Ottoman Egypt in Perspective: New Archives, New Trends, New Stakes
Dr. Magdi Guirguis (Cairo University, Fellow of EUME): Introduction and Presentation of the Panel of Egyptian Historians
Discussants: Dr. Shaden Tageldin (Fellow of EUME)
Prof. Elsayed Achmawi (Cairo University), Egyptian Approaches to the Ottoman Period: Historiography in Perspective
Dr. Malte Fuhrmann (Researcher, ZMO Berlin), Turkish and German Ottoman Historiographies: Methods and Questions
Dr. Sabri ad-Dali (Lecturer, Hilwan University, Cairo), The Role of Sufi Narratives in the Building of a Political Sphere in Egypt (16th-17th c.)
Nasser Abd Allah Osman Abo Zead (B.A. Azhar University), Ulema and Society in 16th-17Ith c. Egypt
Session 2
2 pm – 6 pm
Discussants: Dr. Dana Sajdi (Fellow of EUME)
Karima Ghoneem (BA, Mansoura University), Law and Politics in Ottoman Cairo (16th-17th c.)
Dr. Florian Riedler (Researcher, ZMO Berlin), "History from below" in an Ottoman Context
Dr. Hossam Abd Almity (Lecturer, Bani- Sueif University), Merchants and State in 18th c. Egypt
Dr. Nasser Ibrahim (Lecturer, Cairo University), The Copts and the French Occupation of Egypt: New Perspectives.
Rizq Ahmed Noury (BA, Cairo University), Corruption and Administration in Egypt at the time of Mohammad Ali
Nasra Abd Elmotagaly (BA, Banha University), Society and State in 18th and 19th c. Rural Egypt