International Workshop: In the ‘middle’ of society: social transformations and the appearance of new ‘middle classes’ in the urban centres of the Middle East (ca 1500 to 1900)

American University in Cairo, 11-12 November 2011Oriental Hall, Tahrir Square Campus

Program

Friday, November 11

10h00: Introduction

10h30-12h00 First session: rural and provincial settingsChair: Astrid Meier:Rural investors and their urban activities: Examples of ‘middle-class’ careers in 17th- and 18th-century Ottoman Damascus?Nasir Ibrahim: A´ilat al-tabaqa al-wusta fi marhalat al-tahawwul: a´ilat Sulayman Qatid bi-l-Iskandariyya namudhajan (1777-1816).Abd al-Hamid Sulayman:Sina`at al-nufudh wa-hiyazat al-tharwa. Dirasa hala li-ba`d a´ilat qura Delta Misr fi al-qarnayn 17 wa 18 al-miladiyayn.

12h00-12h30: coffee-break

12h30-13h30 Second session: EducationChair:Dario Miccoli:The social and the imaginary: Schools and the making of a Jewish middle-class in colonial Cairo, ca 1890-1920.Magdi Guirgis:The Mobility of a Teacher in 19th c. Cairo.

13h30-14h30: lunch break

14h30-15h30 Third session: artisans and merchants Chair: Nelly Hanna:Artisan Entrepreneurs in Cairo (1600-1800)Nora Lafi:An Ottoman urban working “middle-class” of artisans and the stakes of modernity: the chechia workers and entrepreneurs of Tunis in the 19th c.

Saturday, November 12:

09h30-10h30Forth session: waqfChair:Randi Deguilhem: Ordinary People, Ordinary Waqf: Identifying Middle Level Networks via Small Waqf Foundations in Ottoman DamascusStefan Knost:‘Men and women of modest waqf’ in Aleppo around 1800: Endowing strategies of a new “middle class”?

10h30-11h00: coffee break

11h00-12h30Fifth session: Social mobility and new ‘middle’ groupsChair:Adam Mestyan:Artists of/for the middle class? Theatre makers and musicians in Cairo, 1879-1892.Lucie Ryzova:Hearts Full of Hope: Strategies of social mobility among middling social groups in early 20th century Egypt.Tomoki OKAWARA:Reproduction of Ottoman “middle class”? An analysis of “middle class” family marriage strategy in the late and post Ottoman Damascus.

12h30-13h30: lunch break

13h30-14h30Sixth session: Social mobility and new ‘middle’ groupsChair:Till Grallert:Not being marked as members of a common group: three Damascenes from the “middle” of society. Vangelis Kechriotis:‘Middle class’ visions and ethnic rivalry among Muslims and non-Muslims in Izmir at the turn of the 20th c.

14h30-15h30: Résumé: Pascale Ghazaleh General discussion