Gatekeepers of the Arab Past : Historians and History Writing in Twentieth-Century Egypt

This groundbreaking study illuminates the Egyptian experience of modernity by critically analyzing the foremost medium through which it was articulated: history. The first comprehensive analysis of a Middle Eastern intellectual tradition, __Gatekeepers of the Past__ examines a system of knowledge that replaced the intellectual and methodological conventions of Islamic historiography only at the very end of the nineteenth century. Covering more than one hundred years of mostly unexamined historucal literature in Arabic, Yoav Di-Capua explores Egyptian historical thought, examines the careers of numerous critical historians, and traces this tradition's uneasy relationship with colonial forms of knowledge as well as with the post-colonial state. This groundbreaking study illuminates the Egyptian experience of modernity by critically analyzing the foremost medium through which it was articulated: history. The first comprehensive analysis of a Middle Eastern intellectual tradition, Gatekeepers of the Past examines a system of knowledge that replaced the intellectual and methodological conventions of Islamic historiography only at the very end of the nineteenth century. Covering more than one hundred years of mostly unexamined historucal literature in Arabic, Yoav Di-Capua explores Egyptian historical thought, examines the careers of numerous critical historians, and traces this tradition's uneasy relationship with colonial forms of knowledge as well as with the post-colonial state.



Contents Illustrations Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1. Historicizing Ottoman Egypt 1890–1906 2. Talking History 1906–1920 3. The `Ābdīn House Of Records The 1920s 4. Competing For History 1930–1952 5. Ghurbāl’s School 1930–1952 6. Partisan Historiography The 1940s And Beyond 7. Demonstrating History Th E 1950s 8. Controlling History Th E 1960s 9. Authoritarian Pluralism 1970–2000 Conclusion Bibliography Index A study that illuminates the Egyptian experience of modernity by critically analyzing the foremost medium through which it was articulated: history. Covering more than one hundred years of mostly unexamined historical literature in Arabic, it explores Egyptian historical thought and examines the careers of numerous critical historians. Yoav Di-Capua explores Egyptian historical thought, examines the careers of numerous critical historians & traces the uneasy relationship of this tradition with colonial forms of knowledge as well as with the postcolonial state