Outside in

Non-conformism differs, of course, from culture to culture and across historical periods. This major survey of the marginal in the Middle East represents the first in-depth study of the phenomenon, focusing principally on the 19th and 20th centuries and across all aspects of what might be considered the fringes of society from modern Tunis to Ottoman Istanbul. As such, it provides a vital contribution to the massive literature inspired by the Annales school and Eric Hobsbawm's work on 'history from below', while also offering a fascinating and entirely new perspective on Middle Eastern society in the Modern period.