Everyday life & consumer culture in 18th-century Damascus / James Grehan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grehan, James.

Series:

Publications on the Near East, University of Washington.

Publications on the Near East

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumers--Syria--Damascus--History--18th century.

Consumers.

Damascus (Syria)--Social life and customs--18th century.

Damascus (Syria).

Damascus (Syria)--Economic conditions--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (338 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Everyday life and consumer culture in eighteenth-century Damascus

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Damascus was for centuries a center of learning and commerce. Drawing on the city's dazzling literary tradition-a rich collection of poetry, chronicles, travel accounts, and biographical dictionaries-as well as on Islamic court records, James Grehan explores the material culture of premodern Damascus, reconstructing the economic infrastructure, social customs, and private consumer habits that dominated this cosmopolitan hub in the 1700s. He sketches a lively history of diet, furniture, fashion, and other aspects of daily life, providing an unusual and intimate account of the choices, constraints, and compromises that defined consumer behavior.Coffee, tobacco, and light firearms had arisen as new luxury items in preceding centuries, and Grehan traces the usage of such goods in order to get a picture of the overall standard of living in the premodern Middle East. He looks particularly at how wealth and poverty were defined and how consumption patterns expressed notions of taste, class, and power, illuminating the prominent role played by Damascus in shaping the economy and culture of the Middle East.In assessing the magnitude of social change in modern times, we have few benchmarks from the period preceding the onset of modernity in the nineteenth century. This informative study will make possible more precise cultural and economic comparisons between different parts of the world as it stood on the brink of a radically new economic and political order. The book's focus on a little-examined period and region will appeal to scholars and students of urban social history and Arab popular culture.

Contents:

City & environment

Bread & survival

Luxury & variety : everyday food

Luxury & variety : everyday drink

Domestic space

Fashion & deportment

Conclusion

Appendix A. Major articles of furniture

Appendix B. Major utensils for cooking and eating

Appendix C. Major articles of clothing.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-306) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780295801636

0295801638

OCLC:

932315229