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She has identified a new genre of history writing among a new breed of authors spread throughout Bilad al-Sham. Sajdi's most innovative contribution to the existing historiography of Ottoman Syria and Arabo-Islamic history writing is her scrupulous attention to the distinctive literary markers of these texts. The Barber of Damascus will hold its own as a work that enriches our understanding of the 18th century while also identifying key continuities between the periods that precede and follow it.
Surely, Sajdi's masterpiece shall be taught alongside [other] masterful works of microhistory to rightly place the social history of the Ottoman Empire in conversation with the history of Europe.
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An erudite work of impeccable scholarship. Ibn Budayr and his work as barber and historian disrupt our notions of genre and give us a marvelous portrait of Damascus in the eighteenth century. In addition to her high level of scholarship on multiple fronts, as a social historian, biographer, and literary analyst, Sajdi writes clearly and makes expert use of Ibn Budayr's own words to tell his story and that of his history. For both its insights and its information, the book deserves to be read and enjoyed by a wide readership.
Zilfi , Journal of the American Oriental Society. It is a pioneering study that introduces the world of laypersons in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Levant.
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Although the book engages in complicated issues of the cultural and social history and the literary studies of the eighteenth century, Sajdi's writing style is easy to follow, and her use of clear arguments and the fluidity of her language is impressive. The book represents a major contribution to microhistorical studies of the Ottoman world and will likely become a classic read by students of the cultural and social history of the Ottoman Levant in the early modern era. The Barber of Damascus.
One of the 10 Best Books of reviewed by Critical Margins. Zilfi , Journal of the American Oriental Society "Sajdi's The Barber of Damascus is a study, which, without any doubt, will become foundational to students and researchers focusing on the cultural and intellectual history of the Levant in Ottoman times. More in Middle East Studies. Ibn Budayr shook up genres and literary conventions and dared to enter literary precincts where people of his class and occupation had not been welcome. What could speak more to our time when new voices are starting to be heard in academia and the literary world?
Anyone interested in literary history and the writing of history should read this book. This book is not without flaws. For a book that argues for the importance of Ibn Budayr in several fields the history of the Levant, the history of literature, etc. Another frustrating aspect of the book is that there are no comparisons to figures in the non-Islamic world that also chronicled their time and place, such as Samuel Pepys.
The Barber of Damascus: Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant
It uses him to draw larger lessons of value to everyone interested in the story of the written word. As she tells us,. According to Sajdi, this phenomenon was not simply about the ability to read and write. She notes that some of these chroniclers did eventually become privileged themselves, which illustrates that the genre often functioned as a commentary on the need for or about already existing social mobility in the 18th century Levant and often was employed by those who had risen in the world.
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- The Barber of Damascus: Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant by Dana Sajdi;
- Review: The Barber of Damascus by Dana Sajdi!
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Much of the value, and a good deal of the fun, of reading scholarly books come from picking up nuggets of information that help us understand world culture and literature. Sajdi uses the term to mean the region that now includes the present states of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.
Dana Sajdi
Sajdi mentions that one common feature of chronicles such as that of Ibn Budayr is that food prices are often mentioned, given that they have such a huge impact on daily life and have traditionally served as a measure of the competence of a regime. She says that Ibn Budayr tended to mention them even more obsessively than many other chroniclers. There are amusing nuggets in this book, such as the fact that Ibn Budayr tended to portray himself in a most self-promoting fashion and liked to show off his connections with the scholarly elite.
He probably would have loved using Twitter.
Review: The Barber of Damascus by Dana Sajdi – Critical Margins
Sajdi notes, too, the linguistic prowess of the scholarly elite of the Ottoman Empire, the members of its literati tending to be tri-lingual in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. How many members of modern literature departments are fluent in three languages? There is much fascinating material in The Barber of Damascus for readers interested in the history of literary genres.
Both were usually considered the province of the elite, and for someone of the artisanal class such as a barber to employ them was considered by scholarly panjandrums to be social climbing by a presumptuous parvenu. Indeed, so earnest in his literary endeavors was Ibn Budayr bordering on stuffiness that there is little humor in his book at all. Sajdi discusses a range of genres in addition to the tarjama and the dream vision.
Historians of the social, religious and military history of the Levant will want to read this chapter.