Book Reviews 575 Book Review Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East By Donna Bowen and Evelyn Early, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. This book is a collection of thirty-four essays about people from eleven countries and is designed to "give Western readers a sense of 576 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 11:4 what it is like to live in the Middle East in the latter part of the 20th century.” The approach is based on the assumption that “one can learn much about another culture by examining the daily, simple acts that are performed by all people.” The book does not attempt to pre- sent any theories of social action, although the primary source material in the book can be used to test social theories. Eleven of the essays deal with Moroccans and seven deal with Egyptians. The book is thus heavily slanted toward Morocco and Egypt, at the expense of countries not dealt with at all (i.e., Turkey, Oman, Jordan, and Pakistan). What makes this book sociologically interesting is its description of the behavior of people in groups. It presents the themes of old vs. new, tradition vs. modernity, village vs. city, and Islam vs. secularism. There were eleven articles that dealt with Islam and Muslims specifically, as opposed to Middle Easterners in general. I will limit my comments to seven of these articles, espe- cially since the title of the book specifies the “Muslim” Middle East. In “The Sound of the Divine in Daily Life,” Kristina Nelson makes the point that the Qur’an is heard extensively in public areas throughout Egypt. She states that “Qur’anic recitation is a common, daily event, not restricted to special occasions, nor even to strictly religious contexts.” It may be recited by a beggar, heard in a taxi cab, played on a shopkeeper’s radio, or used to open a conference. This is uncommon in the West, and thus presents a unique and new experi- ence for people visiting the Middle East. Donna Bowen writes about “Pragmatic Morality: Islam and Family Planning in Morocco.” She points out that, in general, tradi- tional Muslim scholars have encouraged large families and have allowed contraception on the condition that partners agree to it. The problem facing Morocco today is a population that is too large for current economic conditions. As a result, family planning is needed to ensure that parents have fewer children, all of whom can be educated and made productive members of the labor force, rather than more children, many of whom cannot be educated and who become less productive members of the labor force. Elizabeth Fernea discusses “The Veiled Revolution” in a manner designed to complement her film series on Middle Eastern women. She points out that the women who are veiling themselves today are not returning to the long, full black dress of the past. Rather, they are wearing creative new styles of headscarves that are both “fashionable” as well as “Islamic.” Furthermore, the return to “Islamic” dress is not occuring only among poor or uneducated women; on the contrary, it is very much a middle class and upper class phenomenon found mostly among educated working women. This Islamic dress is not an Book Reviews 577 imposition upon women by male fundamentalists, but is rather an assertion of identity based upon free choice, a source of pride, as well as an assertion of women’s rights. The veil deters sexual advances by men and preserves a Muslim woman’s sense of respect, given her increasing interaction with nonrelated men at school and work. James Miller and Donna Bowen, authors of “The Nasiriyya Brotherhood of Southern Morocco,” find this Sufi Muslim brother- hood in the village of Tamgrout interesting because it was a private (nongovernmental) institution that provided services to the people. Its school was one of the best in Morocco, and its library had a famous collection of thousands of manuscripts. Its leaders acted as arbiters in tribal disputes, and its scholars solved people’s legal problems. All of this almost disappeared after the imposition of French colonization. After independence, the government took control of the brother- hood’s endowments (awqdj) and appointed bureaucrats to administer its properties. The school lost both its enrollment and quality. The library’s valuable manuscripts have been taken away, and the brother- hood has been prevented from participating in politics. Last but not least, jurists belonging to the brotherhood can no longer administer Islamic law, for state law administerid by government-appointed judges is the only law allowed. John Waterbury discusses “Islam and Hajj Brahim’s World.” Hajj Brahim is a southern Moroccan merchant of Berber origin who has to deal with the fatalism of many Moroccan Muslims. People are no longer hardworking and industrious, and they misuse the excuse of fate (qadar) to justify their laziness. People claim that everything is written (maktcb) and that they are therefore powerless to improve their state of affairs. Hajj Brahim rejects this as an “un-Islamic” view of the world. He argues that Muslims are not helpless; they are very capable of bettering themselves. The problem with Muslims, in his view, is that they lack discipline. If Islam is followed, discipline fol- lows. When Islam is abandoned, so is discipline. People are mistaken when they adopt the secular notion that order can be kept by the police and that decency can be preserved by government regulation. In reality, it is the good Muslims who keep the order and preserve decency, whereas the police and the laws are needed only to serve as helping mechanisms. The problem, then, is not too much religion, as some western observers have noted, but too little. Donna Bowen points out in “Abu Illya and Zakat,” that there are still Muslims who give 2.5 percent of their yearly savings to charity. Abu Illya is a baker in the Moroccan town of Bou Jad. Lalla Fatiha, his neighbor, is a widow with seven children who does not have enough money to pay for her family’s upkeep and her children’s edu- 578 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 1 1 :4 cation. Abu Illya supports her as a fellow Muslim. At the same time, he neither advertises his support for her nor make hers feel inferior or beholden to himt. Abu Illya believes that it is the responsibility of every Muslim to pay zakat, regardless of government welfare pro- grams. Morocco has become very secularized, and the government has imposed an income tax on all wage-earners and provides some aid to the poor. This has continued to be a problem in Morocco, since people resent being forced to give their money to the government. At the same time, the government is unable and unwilling to provide adequate support for the needy. Philip Schuyler discusses “Entertainment in the Marketplace” in the great square (Jama el FM) in Marrakesh, Morocco. He states that whereas entertainers come to the market to make money, their plays, comedy routines, and stories involve Islamic elements. One such ele- ment is prayer, as the actors invite the audience to join them in an invocation to God and the Prophet Muhammad. The audience is also encouraged to sit in a circle around the entertainer, with men in the inner circle and women in the outer circle. Entertainers stage mock arguments, the resolution of which is accomplished through prayer. Many entertainers preach Isiam to the audience, while others recite from the Qur’an. Such behavior underscores the underlying Islamic value system of the society and points to the strength of religion despite the extent of secularization. This book is a welcome addition to the literature, given the small amount of supplementary teaching materials in English for courses on the Middle East. It is also useful for advanced undergraduate students who are taking courses in Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, sociology, and anthropology. Another welcome feature is that it includes pictures, a glossary of terms (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish), a section on further readings, information about the writers, and a small introductory paragraph before each article. It provides a good sociological overview, dealing with the themes of growing up, marriage, sex, gender relations, clothing, hospitality toward guests, and humor. Two articles deal with the economic matters of the marketplace and charity (zakat), and two deal with political matters (the political satire of Darid Laham and Yemeni civil war poetry). However, some of the articles did not mention any dates, which made it hard to get a sense of the time period involved. I would have also preferred more depth (an explicit concentration on Egypt and Morocco) rather than breadth (which was attempted but not very suc- cessfully). The panel that provided suggestions and feedbackdid not include, to my knowledge, any Muslim or Middle Easterner. Perhaps Book Reviews 579 future works of this sort might involve more of the people who are being written about and whose lives are being addressed. Omar Altalib Department of Sociology University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois