Agnieszka Dobrowolska, The Building Crafts of Cairo: A Living Tradition. The American University in Cairo Press, 2005 The title of this book, adorned as it is with a photograph of an aged stonecutter, may not be very appealing, but do not be deceived. It is painstakingly researched, lavishly illustrated, and beautifully designed by the author herself. Dobrowolska, a conservation architect who has been living and working in Cairo for going on 15 years, has succeeded in capturing what she considers an endangered way of life and work before it is too late. "My point of view was not that of a social anthropologist or ethnographer," she writes in her introduction, "but of a conservation architect dealing with the craftsmen on a day-to-day basis, making use of their skills or practical purposes. This approach has its limitations," she admits, "but working with the craftsmen of Cairo has been a fascinating and enriching experience." Fortunately for the rest of us, she has chosen to share some of the insights that she has gained from this knowledge. The result is a work at once intimate, well observed and written in lively prose. "The philosophy behind architectural conservation has been never to chance the substance of historic buildings," Dobrowolska writes. "Wherever possible, repairs [have been] done using the same materials and techniques that were used for the original construction." This brought her into contact with a large number of people practicing traditional crafts in Cairo "in small workshops located in the same neighbourhoods since immemorial", whose professional skills have been passed down from father to son for generations. Dobrowolska became aware that the craftsmen of Cairo who had, for centuries, produced work of beauty, ingenuity and skill, were fast disappearing. The stonemasonry, marble work, blacksmithing, glassblowing, carpentry, wood turning, inlay work and gilding are produced by humble and anonymous individuals whom she came to respect. Her most recent work on conservation, a royal family mausoleum in Cairo's City of the Dead, brought her in close touch with the people, particular the craftsmen and their families whom she learnt to admire. "My point of view was not that of a social anthropologist or ethnographer, but of a conservation architect dealing with the craftsmen on a day-to-day basis, making use of their skills for practical purposes," she says. The author set out to compare the crafts practised today with the records of early 19th century European travellers. It soon became clear, however, that while many of the early travellers were interested both in ancient and contemporary Egypt, the everyday work of craftsmen usually fell outside their field of view. "Even as meticulous and involved an observer as E W Lane wrote about different products of Egyptian industries, but not about their fabrication," Dobrowolska points out, adding, "the sole exception in this respect is the French Déscription de l'Egypte... I decided to pick up where Jomard (who prepared a sub-section entitled Art et Metiers ) left off, and use the classification of Déscription de l'Egypte to describe the building crafts of present-day Cairo."5ery elegant and well illustrated book, a survey that takes in the masons and stonecutters of yesterday with contemporary photographs of the craftsmen and the elegant structures they produce; Dobrowolska writes appreciatively about the lavishly decorated marble interiors of Mamluk and Ottoman buildings "with jigsaw patterns of interlocking marble pieces of dado decoration on the walls, and beautifully patterned floors" and admits that it is still not known who designed them -- stonecutters, architects, or master builders. From the slaking of lime to the people who worked in gypsum, from the cutting of timber to specialisation in carpentry, from inlay craftsmen to glassmakers and gilders, all covered with an eye to the smallest detail and in obvious appreciation of the "living tradition". Dobrowolska has provided Arabic translations throughout, a clear indication of her command of the language of the people with whom she has been working. "I have been fortunate," she writes, "that my desire to document the traditional builders' crafts in Cairo could be carried out as a project of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, financed by a grant from the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Cairo." The Building Crafts of Cairo is no ordinary publication. It has an elegant text interspersed with numerous photographic illustrations, appropriate line drawings, and its final form and design is the work of Mervat Waheeb at the Virgin Graphics Company, and the AUC Press. This is a book which will appeal to scholars and lay public alike, and which has the added advantage, all too rare these days, of being in a compact, manageable and light format. Moreover, The Building Crafts of Cairo succeeds in capturing these endangered ways of life and work before it is too late. By Jill Kamel
