The Pure and the Powerful, the second book by the Oxford-based anthropologist
Nadia Abu-Zahra, is a case study of the rituals performed at the Cairo shrine of al-Sayyida
Zaynab, patron saint of women, during the anniversaries of her birth and death. Considered by
many to be the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, al-Sayyida Zaynab is the epitome of
purity and has the power to heal the sick. Abu-Zahra sees religious practices at the shrine as a
demonstration of Islam and Egyptian society's “integrated wholeness.” In
short, the beliefs and practices of common people, intellectual elites, men, and women are more
analogous than previously thought.