Arab Nahda as Popular Entertainment

What was popular entertainment like for everyday Arab societies in Middle Eastern cities during the long nineteenth century? In what ways did café culture theatre illustrated periodicals cinema cabarets and festivals serve as key forms of popular entertainment for Arabic-speaking audiences many of whom were uneducated and striving to contend with modernity's anxiety-inducing realities? Studies on the 19th to mid-20th century's transformative cultural movement known as the Arab <i>nahda</i> (renaissance) have largely focussed on concerns with nationalism secularism and language often told from the perspective of privileged groups. Highlighting overlooked aspects of this movement this book shifts the focus away from elite circles to quotidian audiences. Its ten contributions range in scope from music and visual media to theatre and popular fiction. Paying special attention to networks of movement and exchange across Arab societies in Lebanon Syria Egypt Iraq and Morocco this book heeds the call for 'translocal/transnational' cultural histories while contributing to timely global studies on gender sexuality and morality. Focusing on the often-marginalized frequenters of cafés artist studios cinemas nightclubs and the streets it expands the remit of who participated in the <i>nahda</i> and how they did.