This volume deals with the history of the "common people" in the Middle East. It investigates some of the characteristic traits of the structure and development of urban and rural society in pre-modern and modern Middle Eastern history.

Gabriel Baer

History: Review of New Books- " Baer"s compendium of writings on the subject of common life in rural and urban Middle Eastern societies is highly impressive. The scholarship is outstanding. There is copious, critical use of primary sources, as well documented in explanatory footnotes...Fellah and Townsman deserves reading by all serious students of the Middle East