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-- This book has won the Prix Saintour by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres! --
Prix Saintour
On sait depuis longtemps que les juifs furent, parmi bien d’autres au Caire, victimes de violences pendant la révolte du gouverneur ottoman Ahmed Pacha (1523-1524), et qu’ils commémorèrent chaque année leurs épreuves au cours d’une fête locale de Pourim. Ce livre mobilise pour la première fois une riche documentation en turc, italien et arabe sur ces violences et leur contexte. Il souligne l’apport de Capsali (m. 1550), dont la chronique de la révolte en hébreu, négligée par les chercheurs, est traduite ici ; il invite à reconsidérer l’histoire de la chronique liturgique (megillah) anonyme, donc aussi celle de la fête. Dernier avatar d’une tradition historiographique vieille de cinq siècles, il renouvelle en profondeur l’exposé des faits et l’analyse des dynamiques sociales à l’œuvre dans la révolte, en les inscrivant dans l’histoire de la transition des Mamelouks aux Ottomans en Égypte et en Syrie.
It has been long known that Jews, among many others in Cairo, were victims of violence during the revolt of the Ottoman governor Ahmed Pasha (1523-1524), and that they would commemorate their sufferings each year, during a local Purim festival. For the first time, this book draws on a wealth of documentation in Turkish, Italian and Arabic on these acts of violence and their context. It highlights the contribution of Capsali (d. 1550), whose chronicle of the revolt in Hebrew – neglected by scholars – has been translated here; it also prompts readers to reconsider the history of the anonymous liturgical chronicle (megillah), and therefore that of the festival as well. As the last avatar of a five-century-old historiographical tradition, it thoroughly recasts the presentation of facts along with an analysis of the social dynamics at work in the revolt, contextualizing them within the history of the transition from the Mamluks to the Ottomans in Egypt and Syria.
Price: $132.00
Pages: 12
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Publication Date:
06 December 2023
ISBN: 9789004688384
Format: Hardcover
[...] Beyond the specific subject of his investigation, Benjamin Lellouch has written a monograph that challenges us as historians in the best possible way. His findings are illuminating, always differentiated and well-founded. In this way, his book defies the instrumentalization of history. Neither does it advocate a neo-lachrymose reading, rejecting «la conception victimaire, ‘‘néo-lacrymale’’, de l’histoire de la présence juive en pays d’Islam» (p. 15), nor does it tell a simple story of triumph. Lellouch remarks laconically that the same Jews of Cairo who relied on Ottoman power were affected by the economically motivated deportations to Istanbul in 1517 (cf. p. 149). In the end, the book induces us to reflect on the historiographical traditions in which we ourselves stand and which narrative frames we consciously or unconsciously use.
[...].
Susanne Härtel, in Revue des Etudes Juives, Vol. 184 (1-2) (2025), pp. 274-279
Benjamin Lellouch est maître de conférences à l’Université Paris-8 et chercheur au Centre d’histoire des sociétés Médiévales et Modernes (MéMo). Il a travaillé sur l’histoire ottomane, mamelouke et juive du XVIe siècle, et a dirigé Conquête ottomane de l'Égypte (1517) (avec Nicolas Michel) (Brill, 2013).
Benjamin Lellouch is assistant professor at the University of Paris-8 and researcher at the Centre d’histoire des sociétés Médiévales et Modernes (MéMo). His works have dealt with Ottoman, Mamluk and Jewish history in the 16th century, and he has edited Conquête ottomane de l'Égypte (1517) (with Nicolas Michel) (Brill, 2013)