| Sumario: | The writer examines some of the ways that written and printed materials are implicated in contemporary nationalist and reformist political projects in Egypt and considers qualities that connect those materials in unexpected ways with other forms of knowledge production and communication. He focuses on one of the sites and sources of innovation in contemporary Muslim intellectual production—the area of religious literature for children. He notes that as well as Western-style religious textbooks and examinations in schools, public and private sector publishers now bring out instructional material mixing conventional printed messages with pictures, drawings, and activities. He contends that the processes of translating traditional genres of sacred text into forms suitable for mass consumption as well as more general conventions drawn from children's literature are likely to become increasingly central aspects of the intellectual technology of mainstream Islamic cultural production. The effects on traditional religious and scholarly elites are considered.
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