Providing a new perspective on tribal life in Egypt under Mehmet Ali's rule, this book looks at the social and conceptual aspects of the Bedouin tribes during this period.

This volume consists of 19 studies by leading historians of the Mamluks. Drawing on primary Arabic sources, the studies discuss central political, military, urban, social, administrative, economic, financial and religious aspects of the Mamluk Empire that was established in 1250 by Mamluks (manumitted military slaves, mostly Turks and Circassians). It was a Sunni orthodox state that had a formidable military, a developed and sophisticated economy, a centralized Arab bureaucracy and prestigious religious and educational institutions. There are special articles about Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Safed and Acre. The last part of the volume describes the Mamluk military class that survived in Egypt (although in a transformed form) under the Ottoman suzerainty after the Empire annexed Egypt and Syria in 1517. With contributions by Reuven Aharoni, Reuven Amitai, Frederic Bauden, Jonathan Berkey, Daniel Crecelius, Joseph Drory, Jane Hathaway, Robert Irwin, Donald Little, Nimrod Luz, Carl Petry, Thomas Philipp, Yossef Rapoport, André Raymond, Donald S. Richards, Warren Schultz and Hannah Taragan.

This is Volume I of two which looks at the Bedouin tribes of the Euphrates River valley area, Mesopotamia and the western deserts. It was originally published in 1879. This collection has an additional preface in Volume I and chapters in Volume II by the editor.

While previous scholarship has viewed Mehmed Ali Pasha as the founder of modern Egypt, Khaled Fahmy offers a new interpretation of his role in the rise of Egyptian nationalism, locating him in the Ottoman context as an ambitious Ottoman reformer. Basing his work on previously neglected archival material, the author demonstrates how Mehmed Ali sought to develop the Egyptian economy and to build up the army, not as a means of gaining Egyptian independence from the Ottoman Empire, but to further his own ambitions for hereditary rule over the province. In its analysis of nation-building and the construction of state power, the book makes a significant contribution to the larger theoretical debates. It will therefore be essential reading for students in the field, as well as for Ottomanists, military historians and those interested in the development of the modern nation-state.

Basing his work on previously neglected archival material, the author demonstrates how Mehmed Ali sought to develop the Egyptian economy and armies, not as a means of gaining independence, but to further his hereditary rule over Egypt.