4 - Social and cultural capital

Summary

Nothing takes longer to acquire than the surface polish which is called good manners.

Tocqueville, L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution (Paris, 1856)

They are more proud of the title Cartesian and of the capacity to defend his principles than of their noble birth and blood.

Giovanni Marana, Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy (Paris, 1684)

This chapter examines how the a^cyān, through cultivation of ^cilm, inculcated in their young a talent or knack for acquiring social and cultural capital. It will argue that the a^cyān acquired their critical loyalties and social distinction by making social use of cultural practices associated with ^cilm. It will argue further that where in other societies many of these practices are specialized in formal domains such as “higher education” and “book production,” in medieval Damascus they are better studied as a single group of ritual, mimetic, and performative practices.

Young people and their shaykhs

As with much else in the cultural history of Islamic societies, the association of learning with loyalty was summed up in a quotation attributed to ^cAlī Ibn Abī Tālib: “I am the slave of whoever who teaches me one letter of the alphabet. If he wishes he may sell me; if he so desires he may set me free; and if he cares to he may make use of me as a slave.” In quoting this sentiment, Zarnūjī was typical of his contemporaries. The a^cyān of Damascus constructed their most intimate and socially critical social bonds through the cultivation of ^cilm. Bonds of dependence and loyalty between shaykhs and their disciples, and among shaykhs themselves, were the basis of the a^cyān's social networks.