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.