The culture of medieval Cairo as reflected in folk literature

Abstract

A common reaction to tales and legends is that they represent the fantasies of the ages rather than the realities of any period. The view, however, overlooks a very important fact: folklore is produced and transmitted by persons involved in particular social milieus and therefore reflects not only imagination, wishes, and aspirations, but also basic attitudes about the world and human society, as well as information concerning contemporary culture. To the student of social anthropology, a collection such as The Arabian Nights offers a vast amount of illustrative material about the culture of the lower orders of society, for whom and by whom these tales were composed. In its contribution to historical knowledge this material is all the more valuable, because most of the chronicles and other primary source materials from the Middle Ages are concerned with events involving the elite and notables rather than the broader social base of society and the cultural matrix of everyday interaction. While conducting an extensive study of the cultural development of Cairo, the author found that folk literature formed an indispensable supplement to historical accounts in providing objective corroboration of facts implied by contemporary authors and also in giving subjective insight into the general world-view of the medieval Cairene. The Nights, as they have come to us, bear the unmistakable stamp of the Mamluk period and all scholars agree that the collection attained its final form in Egypt during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 1 The setting in which they were told became an integral part of numerous stories. Even when the action purports to take place in Baghdad or China, it is the life of Cairo with which the reciter or copyist is familiar. 2 In some tales, the Cairene environment plays an essential part, in others, it is a thin veneer; yet we cannot doubt that the realistic aspects truly reflect the milieu of the listeners. Let us take, for example, an excerpt from the tale of 'Ma'ruf the Cobbler'. Ma'ruf has met a merchant in Damascus and is discussing Cairo with him: 'My name is Ma'ruf and I am a cobbler by trade and patch old shoes'. 'What countryman are thou?' 'I am from Cairo.' 'What quarter?' 'Dost thou know Cairo?' 'I am of its children. I come from the Red Street.' 'And whom dost thou know in the Red Street?' 'I know such an one and such an one,' answered Ma'ruf and named several people to him. Quoth the other, 'Knowest thou Sheykh Ahmed the druggist?' 'He was my next neighbor, wall to wall.' 'Is he well ?Yes.How many sons hath he ?' 'Three, Mustafa, Mohammed, and Ali.' 'And what hath Allah done with them?' 'As for Mustafa, he is well and he is a learned man, a professor. Mohammed is a druggist and opened him a shop beside that of his father, after he had married, and his wife hath borne him a son