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Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination
Abstract
Dreams that Matter explores the social and material life of dreams in contemporary Cairo. Amira Mittermaier guides the reader through landscapes of the imagination that feature Muslim dream interpreters who draw on Freud, reformists who dismiss all forms of divination as superstition, a Sufi devotional group that keeps a diary of dreams related to its shaykh, and ordinary believers who speak of moving encounters with the Prophet Muhammad. In close dialogue with her Egyptian interlocutors, Islamic textual traditions, and Western theorists, Mittermaier teases out the dream’s ethical, political, and religious implications. Her book is a provocative examination of how present-day Muslims encounter and engage the Divine that offers a different perspective on the Islamic Revival. Dreams That Matter opens up new spaces for an anthropology of the imagination, inviting us to rethink both the imagined and the real.
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Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“A central theme of Mittermaier's book is that dream-visions are politicized; above all, by virtue of the sanctity they are ascribed.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“Mittermaier (2010:87-93) justifies this position-which amounts to a double-standard where anthropologists but not their subjects warrant the benefit of critique-by providing a summary of how the senses have been thought about in Arabic philosophy, particularly ''spiritual modes of sight'' whereby one's bas : ı ¯ ra or inner vision (cultivated through devote practice) floods one's bas : ar or”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010:87-93
In the citing paper
“Despite the resounding interest that Sufis have in dreams, dreams are contested in modern Islamic society.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“Mittermaier argues that through such media of discourse, the al-khaya ¯l is continually re-imagined to accommodate certain aspects of ''modernity,'' while rejecting others, implying an adaptive process of emotional adjustment, fulfillment, and cultural updating.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“As Mittermaier (2010) has shown, many Muslim groups have continued to value the spiritual significance of dreams since the Prophet Muhammad first received divine revelation through dreaming (see Hermansen 2001).”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier (2010)
In the citing paper
“They affect the decision-making processes and behaviors of those who receive them to such a degree that dreams can heavily influence politics.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“A popular television talk show entitled Ru'a ¯ exemplified this contestation. It featured a central shaykh dream interpreter with Egyptian psychologists as guests receiving calls from viewers who shared their dreams to receive both traditional and psychoanalytic interpretations. This program was censored and eventually discontinued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which deemed dream”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“Dream-visions are so sacred that narrating them can diminish one's capacity to receive them in the future.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“Mittermaier sees this incident as evidence of how modernity modifies and politicizes of tradition.”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
In the citing paper
“To receive dream-visions is, for some of her informants, to receive direct communication from those figures through al-khaya ¯l .”
From Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World (2013) · cites this paper as Mittermaier 2010
Citations
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Sleep, Dreaming, and the Imagination: Psychosocial Adaptations to an Ever-Changing World
LOHMANN, R. I., & DAHL, S. A. P. (2013) · Reviews in Anthropology · doi:10.1080/00938157.2013.788346 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Mittermaier, A.
- Corresponding author
- Mittermaier, Amira
- ORCID
- Mittermaier, Amira
- Venue
- University of California Press eBooks
- Publisher
- University of California Press
- Published
- 2010-12-16
- OpenAlex
- W4238691254
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 27.87
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- University of California Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Islamic Thought and Society Studies
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Islamic Studies and History
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Keywords
- dreams, dream interpretation, divination, Sufism, Islamic revivalism, Islamic reform, Sigmund Freud, religion and politics
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1525/9780520947856
- The paper
- Mittermaier, A. (2010). Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination. University of California Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520947856
