NADIA ABU-ZAHRA, The Pure and the Powerful:Studies in Contemporary Muslim Society (Reading, Berkshire, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 1997).Pp. 340. $45.00 cloth, $21.00 paper.

Abstract

The Pure and the Powerful, the second book by the Oxford-based anthropologist Nadia Abu-Zahra, is a case study of the rituals performed at the Cairo shrine of al-Sayyida Zaynab, patron saint of women, during the anniversaries of her birth and death. Considered by many to be the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, al-Sayyida Zaynab is the epitome of purity and has the power to heal the sick. Abu-Zahra sees religious practices at the shrine as a demonstration of Islam and Egyptian society's “integrated wholeness.” In short, the beliefs and practices of common people, intellectual elites, men, and women are more analogous than previously thought.