Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, Vol. 7: Domestic Animals of Mesopotamia, part I (1993) bySumerian Agriculture GroupReview by: Benjamin R. FosterJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 115, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1995), pp. 729-730Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604772 .

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Reviews of Books Reviews of Books

Steiner, Richard C. 1977. The Case for Fricative Laterals in and milk, with the added advantage of discussion of other Proto-Semitic. New Haven: American Oriental Society. essays in this volume and other Assyriological contributions

covering periods not here represented. The reviewer learned ALICE FABER more about fleeces in a few sentences here than he did from a

HASKINS LABORATORIES, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT lengthy conversation on the subject with a Kurdish shepherd at

Tell Leilan in 1979. Juxtaposition of work of this type, which draws on evidence from all over Europe as well as the Near

East, with the focused studies of the philologists, amply justifies the editors' efforts to bring together specialists from

Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, vol. 7: Domestic Animals of different disciplines interested in the same topics. The ancient Mesopotamia, part I (1993). Sumerian Agriculture Group. Mesopotamian section is rounded out by a contribution by Stol Cambridge: SUMERIAN AGRICULTURE GROUP, FACULTY OF ORI- (pp. 99-113) on milk, ghee, butter, cheese, and related matters. ENTAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1993. Pp. vi + 258 He refines a technique pioneered in Assyriology by Lands- (paper). berger, which consists of assembling the relevant vocabulary

and the actual possibilities, as known from ethnography, then This volume contains thirteen essays, most of which are trying to match them up. He adduces along the way a fascinat-

focused on sheep and goats in antiquity. From the perspective ing collection of ancient and modern lore and proposes a of ancient Mesopotamian documentation, there is a masterful scheme that can be profitably compared with Ryder's discus-

study of sheep and goats in Ur III administrative texts (Heimpel, sion of the same matters. Essays by Ochsenschlager (pp. 33-

pp. 115-60), with elaborate tables conveniently broken down 42, 43-62) report on inquiries in Iraq during the early 1970s, by locality, not to mention some venturesome translations with afterwords of twenty years later. Ethnoarchaeology is (p. 159: "Leervliesgrossschwanzmutterschafe"). This is a substan- seizing the opportunity to record strategies and beliefs world- tial contribution to the understanding of the Neo-Sumerian live- wide that are vanishing rapidly in the face of mechanization and stock industry, especially at Drehem, Umma, and Lagash. Van de industrial homogeneity, allowing for fruitful comparisons with Mieroop (pp. 161-82) surveys evidence for sheep and goats ancient data from the same regions. Here too an annotated bib- from Old Babylonian Ur, from the standpoint of temple admin- liography of other studies would have been useful, as ethno- istration. This yields an interesting perspective on management archaeologists often publish their work in widely scattered of "capital on the hoof." In contrast to previous, less successful, outlets. For the Near East, a "classic" is Carol Kramer's Village treatments of the same material by K. Butz, this is a lucid, con- Ethnoarchaeology: Rural Iran in Archaeological Perspective cise essay surveying both the issues and evidence. Van Driel (New York: Academic Press, 1982); see especially pp. 67-70, (pp. 219-58) provides a fine overview of Neo-Babylonian hus- with an extensive bibliography. A more recent contribution of bandry, also known primarily from temple archives (Uruk and interest to readers of this volume is H. Blitzer, "Pastoral Life Sippar). He draws an important distinction between bonafide in the Mountains of Crete: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspec- herds and need-specific assortments of animals kept together, tive," Expedition 32.3 (1990): 34-41 (with further bibliography). fattened, and then sacrificed. The fussy terminology of the Ur Halstead (pp. 63-75) uses ethnographic data to advantage in III texts is here absent, as is also the case with temple docu- comparing traditional Greek patterns of storing surplus in the mentation of agriculture and orchard work. A detailed analysis form of livestock with possibilities for the Bronze Age of the of a large herding record concludes this interesting and infor- same region. Here again the reader of ancient texts has much mative paper. The student of early Mesopotamian economy to learn from pre-modern conditions, just as the anthropologist misses an up-to-date study of the livestock records of the can be asked questions by the philologists that may set them "Household of Ba'u" (presargonic Lagash) to replace the old to thinking about their evidence in new ways. Redding (pp. 77- studies of Deimel, "Die Viehzucht der Sumerer zur Zeit Uru- 98) approaches husbandry from analysis of ancient faunal re- kagina's," Or. 20 (1926): 1-61; and "Produkte der Viehzucht mains, comparing sheep and goats with cattle, as a testing und ihre Weiterverarbeitung," Or. 21 (1926): 1-40. The editors ground for his theory of "subsistence security" and its relation might well have rounded out this volume by presenting an to variability of subsistence patterns. Recovery and reporting annotated bibliography of Assyriological studies of animal hus- of ancient faunal and floral remains have been as haphazard as bandry from all periods; this would have been a gift to those those of documentation, so the author concludes with an appeal outside the confines of the Geheimwissenschaft and would not for more useful quantified samples and sophisticated tech- have required more than a few pages. For this reader, Ryder's niques for analyzing them. Of interest in this respect is the re- essay (pp. 9-32) was both enlightening and humbling, for here cent study by M. Zeder of faunal remains from Tal-e-Malyan, is a wealth of detailed information on such matters as fleeces Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient

Steiner, Richard C. 1977. The Case for Fricative Laterals in and milk, with the added advantage of discussion of other Proto-Semitic. New Haven: American Oriental Society. essays in this volume and other Assyriological contributions

covering periods not here represented. The reviewer learned ALICE FABER more about fleeces in a few sentences here than he did from a

HASKINS LABORATORIES, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT lengthy conversation on the subject with a Kurdish shepherd at

Tell Leilan in 1979. Juxtaposition of work of this type, which draws on evidence from all over Europe as well as the Near

East, with the focused studies of the philologists, amply justifies the editors' efforts to bring together specialists from

Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, vol. 7: Domestic Animals of different disciplines interested in the same topics. The ancient Mesopotamia, part I (1993). Sumerian Agriculture Group. Mesopotamian section is rounded out by a contribution by Stol Cambridge: SUMERIAN AGRICULTURE GROUP, FACULTY OF ORI- (pp. 99-113) on milk, ghee, butter, cheese, and related matters. ENTAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1993. Pp. vi + 258 He refines a technique pioneered in Assyriology by Lands- (paper). berger, which consists of assembling the relevant vocabulary

and the actual possibilities, as known from ethnography, then This volume contains thirteen essays, most of which are trying to match them up. He adduces along the way a fascinat-

focused on sheep and goats in antiquity. From the perspective ing collection of ancient and modern lore and proposes a of ancient Mesopotamian documentation, there is a masterful scheme that can be profitably compared with Ryder's discus-

study of sheep and goats in Ur III administrative texts (Heimpel, sion of the same matters. Essays by Ochsenschlager (pp. 33-

pp. 115-60), with elaborate tables conveniently broken down 42, 43-62) report on inquiries in Iraq during the early 1970s, by locality, not to mention some venturesome translations with afterwords of twenty years later. Ethnoarchaeology is (p. 159: "Leervliesgrossschwanzmutterschafe"). This is a substan- seizing the opportunity to record strategies and beliefs world- tial contribution to the understanding of the Neo-Sumerian live- wide that are vanishing rapidly in the face of mechanization and stock industry, especially at Drehem, Umma, and Lagash. Van de industrial homogeneity, allowing for fruitful comparisons with Mieroop (pp. 161-82) surveys evidence for sheep and goats ancient data from the same regions. Here too an annotated bib- from Old Babylonian Ur, from the standpoint of temple admin- liography of other studies would have been useful, as ethno- istration. This yields an interesting perspective on management archaeologists often publish their work in widely scattered of "capital on the hoof." In contrast to previous, less successful, outlets. For the Near East, a "classic" is Carol Kramer's Village treatments of the same material by K. Butz, this is a lucid, con- Ethnoarchaeology: Rural Iran in Archaeological Perspective cise essay surveying both the issues and evidence. Van Driel (New York: Academic Press, 1982); see especially pp. 67-70, (pp. 219-58) provides a fine overview of Neo-Babylonian hus- with an extensive bibliography. A more recent contribution of bandry, also known primarily from temple archives (Uruk and interest to readers of this volume is H. Blitzer, "Pastoral Life Sippar). He draws an important distinction between bonafide in the Mountains of Crete: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspec- herds and need-specific assortments of animals kept together, tive," Expedition 32.3 (1990): 34-41 (with further bibliography). fattened, and then sacrificed. The fussy terminology of the Ur Halstead (pp. 63-75) uses ethnographic data to advantage in III texts is here absent, as is also the case with temple docu- comparing traditional Greek patterns of storing surplus in the mentation of agriculture and orchard work. A detailed analysis form of livestock with possibilities for the Bronze Age of the of a large herding record concludes this interesting and infor- same region. Here again the reader of ancient texts has much mative paper. The student of early Mesopotamian economy to learn from pre-modern conditions, just as the anthropologist misses an up-to-date study of the livestock records of the can be asked questions by the philologists that may set them "Household of Ba'u" (presargonic Lagash) to replace the old to thinking about their evidence in new ways. Redding (pp. 77- studies of Deimel, "Die Viehzucht der Sumerer zur Zeit Uru- 98) approaches husbandry from analysis of ancient faunal re- kagina's," Or. 20 (1926): 1-61; and "Produkte der Viehzucht mains, comparing sheep and goats with cattle, as a testing und ihre Weiterverarbeitung," Or. 21 (1926): 1-40. The editors ground for his theory of "subsistence security" and its relation might well have rounded out this volume by presenting an to variability of subsistence patterns. Recovery and reporting annotated bibliography of Assyriological studies of animal hus- of ancient faunal and floral remains have been as haphazard as bandry from all periods; this would have been a gift to those those of documentation, so the author concludes with an appeal outside the confines of the Geheimwissenschaft and would not for more useful quantified samples and sophisticated tech- have required more than a few pages. For this reader, Ryder's niques for analyzing them. Of interest in this respect is the re- essay (pp. 9-32) was both enlightening and humbling, for here cent study by M. Zeder of faunal remains from Tal-e-Malyan, is a wealth of detailed information on such matters as fleeces Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient

729 729

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.79 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:28:03 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.4 (1995) Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.4 (1995)

Near East (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1991). Domestic Ani- mals of Mesopotamia reaches further than the title suggests by including two essays on livestock texts from Ugarit (del Olmo

Lete, pp. 183-97; and Sammartin, pp. 199-207), as well as a

paper on Mycenaean Crete and Greece (Killen, pp. 209-18). For anyone interested in sheep and goats in the pre-Classical

Near East and Mediterranean, this issue of Bulletin on Su- merian Agriculture will prove a treasure trove of information,

bibliography, research strategies, analytic techniques, and philo- logical data. The editors and conveners of this conference, as well as the participants, have rendered a signal service to many segments of the scholarly community. One hopes that this vol- ume will find the interested readership it deserves.

BENJAMIN R. FOSTER YALE UNIVERSITY

The Pasha's Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower

Egypt, 1740-1858. By KENNETH M. CUNO. Cambridge Mid- dle Easy Library, 27. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

PRESS, 1992. Pp. xviii + 277. $59.95.

Kenneth Cuno's monograph is the latest in a series of revi- sionist studies of nineteenth-century Egypt. Like a number of his colleagues, Cuno sees continuity, rather than disjuncture, between the socio-economic conditions of the nineteenth cen-

tury and those of the preceding era. He focuses on the reign of Muhammad CAli Pasha (1805-48), traditionally regarded as the founder of modern Egypt, and particularly on Muhammad CAli's land tenure reforms. These reforms are typically thought to have prepared the ground for the introduction of private, as

opposed to communal, land ownership and for the transition from a subsistence to a market economy.

Cuno, however, considers Muhammad CAli's achievement far less revolutionary. Rural Egypt was integrated into a market

economy long before 1800-centuries before, as the Cairo Geniza attests. In fact, Muhammad CAli suppressed capitalistic behavior by imposing rigid state control over land tenure. Pre-

viously, state-owned (miri) land had been treated as heritable

private property, in practice, by the holders of tax farms (ilti-

zam), who were encouraged in this attitude by the introduction of the life-tenure tax farm (malikane) in c. 1700. Toward the end of the following century, what Cuno calls the "neo-Mamluk re-

gime," launched by CAli Bey al-Kabir (1760-72), began to confiscate the tax farms of vanquished rivals, thus consolidat-

ing a "rentier" class that usurped economic control from the Ottoman administration.

In emphasizing the social and economic circumstances that

prevailed before Muhammad CAli, Cuno displays a familiarity

Near East (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1991). Domestic Ani- mals of Mesopotamia reaches further than the title suggests by including two essays on livestock texts from Ugarit (del Olmo

Lete, pp. 183-97; and Sammartin, pp. 199-207), as well as a

paper on Mycenaean Crete and Greece (Killen, pp. 209-18). For anyone interested in sheep and goats in the pre-Classical

Near East and Mediterranean, this issue of Bulletin on Su- merian Agriculture will prove a treasure trove of information,

bibliography, research strategies, analytic techniques, and philo- logical data. The editors and conveners of this conference, as well as the participants, have rendered a signal service to many segments of the scholarly community. One hopes that this vol- ume will find the interested readership it deserves.

BENJAMIN R. FOSTER YALE UNIVERSITY

The Pasha's Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower

Egypt, 1740-1858. By KENNETH M. CUNO. Cambridge Mid- dle Easy Library, 27. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

PRESS, 1992. Pp. xviii + 277. $59.95.

Kenneth Cuno's monograph is the latest in a series of revi- sionist studies of nineteenth-century Egypt. Like a number of his colleagues, Cuno sees continuity, rather than disjuncture, between the socio-economic conditions of the nineteenth cen-

tury and those of the preceding era. He focuses on the reign of Muhammad CAli Pasha (1805-48), traditionally regarded as the founder of modern Egypt, and particularly on Muhammad CAli's land tenure reforms. These reforms are typically thought to have prepared the ground for the introduction of private, as

opposed to communal, land ownership and for the transition from a subsistence to a market economy.

Cuno, however, considers Muhammad CAli's achievement far less revolutionary. Rural Egypt was integrated into a market

economy long before 1800-centuries before, as the Cairo Geniza attests. In fact, Muhammad CAli suppressed capitalistic behavior by imposing rigid state control over land tenure. Pre-

viously, state-owned (miri) land had been treated as heritable

private property, in practice, by the holders of tax farms (ilti-

zam), who were encouraged in this attitude by the introduction of the life-tenure tax farm (malikane) in c. 1700. Toward the end of the following century, what Cuno calls the "neo-Mamluk re-

gime," launched by CAli Bey al-Kabir (1760-72), began to confiscate the tax farms of vanquished rivals, thus consolidat-

ing a "rentier" class that usurped economic control from the Ottoman administration.

In emphasizing the social and economic circumstances that

prevailed before Muhammad CAli, Cuno displays a familiarity

with the eighteenth century that is rare among historians of the

century following. Nonetheless, he risks giving the same un- warranted importance to CAli Bey that he criticizes in assess- ments of Muhammad CAli. CAli Bey's innovations, like those of Muhammad CAli, had antecedents in the strategies of his prede- cessors. Cuno does perceptively downplay the extent of the eco- nomic crisis of the late eighteenth century, demonstrating that serious disruptions appeared only shortly before the French in- vasion and that the French imposed the same sorts of extortion- ate taxes as the "neo-Mamluk" grandees.

By abolishing iltizam in favor of direct taxation following his 1814 cadastral survey, Muhammad CAli eliminated the "neo- Mamluk" rentier class; its place was ultimately taken by rural notables. Egypt's land regime was not, however, overhauled at this stage or even after Muhammad CAli's death. The innovation of the highly-touted Egyptian land laws of the 1840s and 1850s, Cuno holds, lay not in imposing new patterns of landholding but in tightly regulating land transfers and protecting the new rural elite against the claims of dispossessed peasants. Thus Cuno re- futes the conventional view that these laws paved the way for

private property by expanding peasant rights to land. If they made private ownership possible, it was rather by increasing the security of elite holdings.

Indeed, it was not until the reign of Khedive Ismail (1863-79) that genuine private landownership was introduced. Yet by this

time, the reforms of Muhammad CAli and his successors had al- lowed the landed elite of rural notables to become entrenched. Their ranks were joined by the ruling family, who thus reen-

acted, to some degree, the role of the "neo-Mamluk" elite, lend-

ing credence to Halil Inalcik's privately-expressed opinion that Muhammad CAli was "a typical Ottoman hanedan."

Cuno's study closes with a fascinating history of the conven- tional view of Muhammad CAli as proto-nationalist modernizer. The perception of socially transforming land reform was shaped in the late nineteenth century by observers and officials, above all Ya'qoub Artin, who sought to portray certain of Muhammad CAli's successors as enlightened progressives by way of justi- fying the privileges of the landed elite. This myth of a reform

program that expanded peasant landholding rights complements the Eurocentric notion that European contact, beginning with

the French invasion, catapulted Egypt into the world market and

led inevitably to progressive social change, of which the land reforms were the premier feature.

Cuno supports his arguments through astute use of sharca court registers and rarely exploited land tax registers andfatwas,

giving critical scrutiny to long-accepted statistics and the con-

clusions drawn from them. But perhaps his most significant achievement is integrating the reign of Muhammad CAli and

his successors into the general trajectory of Ottoman Egyptian

history. Infrequent gaps appear in Cuno's knowledge of pre- nineteenth-century institutions; for one example, the entrust-

with the eighteenth century that is rare among historians of the

century following. Nonetheless, he risks giving the same un- warranted importance to CAli Bey that he criticizes in assess- ments of Muhammad CAli. CAli Bey's innovations, like those of Muhammad CAli, had antecedents in the strategies of his prede- cessors. Cuno does perceptively downplay the extent of the eco- nomic crisis of the late eighteenth century, demonstrating that serious disruptions appeared only shortly before the French in- vasion and that the French imposed the same sorts of extortion- ate taxes as the "neo-Mamluk" grandees.

By abolishing iltizam in favor of direct taxation following his 1814 cadastral survey, Muhammad CAli eliminated the "neo- Mamluk" rentier class; its place was ultimately taken by rural notables. Egypt's land regime was not, however, overhauled at this stage or even after Muhammad CAli's death. The innovation of the highly-touted Egyptian land laws of the 1840s and 1850s, Cuno holds, lay not in imposing new patterns of landholding but in tightly regulating land transfers and protecting the new rural elite against the claims of dispossessed peasants. Thus Cuno re- futes the conventional view that these laws paved the way for

private property by expanding peasant rights to land. If they made private ownership possible, it was rather by increasing the security of elite holdings.

Indeed, it was not until the reign of Khedive Ismail (1863-79) that genuine private landownership was introduced. Yet by this

time, the reforms of Muhammad CAli and his successors had al- lowed the landed elite of rural notables to become entrenched. Their ranks were joined by the ruling family, who thus reen-

acted, to some degree, the role of the "neo-Mamluk" elite, lend-

ing credence to Halil Inalcik's privately-expressed opinion that Muhammad CAli was "a typical Ottoman hanedan."

Cuno's study closes with a fascinating history of the conven- tional view of Muhammad CAli as proto-nationalist modernizer. The perception of socially transforming land reform was shaped in the late nineteenth century by observers and officials, above all Ya'qoub Artin, who sought to portray certain of Muhammad CAli's successors as enlightened progressives by way of justi- fying the privileges of the landed elite. This myth of a reform

program that expanded peasant landholding rights complements the Eurocentric notion that European contact, beginning with

the French invasion, catapulted Egypt into the world market and

led inevitably to progressive social change, of which the land reforms were the premier feature.

Cuno supports his arguments through astute use of sharca court registers and rarely exploited land tax registers andfatwas,

giving critical scrutiny to long-accepted statistics and the con-

clusions drawn from them. But perhaps his most significant achievement is integrating the reign of Muhammad CAli and

his successors into the general trajectory of Ottoman Egyptian

history. Infrequent gaps appear in Cuno's knowledge of pre- nineteenth-century institutions; for one example, the entrust-

730 730

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.79 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:28:03 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions