Reyhan Sabri
University of Sharjah, Architectural Engineering, Faculty Member
- Architectural Heritage Conservation, Cultural Heritage, Religious built heritage management, Architectural history and theory, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Postconflict Reconstruction, and 3 moreConservation of Archaeological Sites, Islamic' Architecture, and Waqf Role in Urban Developmentedit
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When armed conflicts devastate a country, its architectural heritage suffers. Its recovery is a multifaceted problem. This paper explores the architectural conservation challenges and complexities in conflict-ravaged Syria through... more
When armed conflicts devastate a country, its architectural heritage suffers. Its recovery is a multifaceted problem. This paper explores the architectural conservation challenges and complexities in conflict-ravaged Syria through in-depth interviews with Syrian heritage officials, practitioners, and experts. Analysis of the interviews and observations in the field has revealed the significant domestic challenges, threats, and weaknesses in the post-conflict recovery of built heritage. Syria shares characteristics with other post-conflict societies, especially the lack of financial and human resources, which are vital for efficient post-conflict conservation planning. However, Syria is also challenged by a diversity of domestic issues relating to the deficiencies in its heritage management and legislation systems. These include, among others, weaknesses in the preservation legislation, lack of archival records/documentation of the pre-destruction state of built heritage, inadequacies of the skilled workforce, and inefficient coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders. The article shows how improving the local heritage management capacity and infrastructure during peacetime is the key to an effective recovery in the aftermath of human or natural catastrophes. Doing so would reduce the uncertainty of depending on global aid and resources, which are scarce and politically complicated to access.
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This chapter concentrates on the period from 1905 to 1935, which started with Antiquities Legislation that in 1905 formalised the arrangements established in the early years of the British administration. The legislation set a cut-off... more
This chapter concentrates on the period from 1905 to 1935, which started with Antiquities Legislation that in 1905 formalised the arrangements established in the early years of the British administration. The legislation set a cut-off date of 1571 to exclude Ottoman-era buildings from its legal protection, though it made sure to include waqf properties with Western origins. Drawing on the archival research outlined earlier, the chapter documents changes to the process of initiating conservation work, the legal framework and technical aspects of conservation. The chapter demonstrates how by 1928 Evkaf was totally under government control, and the British administration started to use its control over Evkaf to strengthen the position of the Turkish-Muslim community against the rising Greek and Turkish nationalist movements.
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In the last half-century, the world has witnessed a fast-paced technological development where cities have been changing tremendously in terms of infrastructure, public health, and quality of life. Looking into the Middle East and... more
In the last half-century, the world has witnessed a fast-paced technological development where cities have been changing tremendously in terms of infrastructure, public health, and quality of life. Looking into the Middle East and specifically in the Gulf states, the rapid urban growth started in the late 20th century has made the status of heritage structures more vulnerable. Cultural heritage in general and modern architectural heritage in particular, are facing extreme danger, which in turn leads to the loss of cultural identity and memory. The paper investigates the modern architectural heritage of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), taking Dubai as a case study. Due to the constant urban and architectural growth that Dubai has been witnessing since the 1950s, its 20th-century heritage has been put in extreme danger of neglect, or extreme physical alterations and, in many cases, demolishment. The UAE governmental bodies have started launching initiatives for the study and preservati...
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This chapter introduces the beginning of the British administration of Cyprus and details its impact on the traditional waqf building upkeep systems from 1878 to 1905. The chapter stresses on how orientalist attitudes towards non-Western... more
This chapter introduces the beginning of the British administration of Cyprus and details its impact on the traditional waqf building upkeep systems from 1878 to 1905. The chapter stresses on how orientalist attitudes towards non-Western people and institutions were both patronising and ignorant of contexts the British were not that interested in understanding. The discussion in this chapter shows how nationalist and diplomatic rationales, as well as institutional legacies and the need to work with non-state actors, created a complex context for policymakers. The chapter also demonstrates in fine detail the way Western experts and forms of expertise were used to render potentially contentious decisions about conservation technical rather than political, especially in relation to the Latin buildings the British saw as signifiers of a pan-European identity.
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the current conservation state of colonial-era ecclesiastical buildings in Yorubaland (South-Western Nigeria) and the mechanics of their upkeep. The article also discusses the parameters of... more
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the current conservation state of colonial-era ecclesiastical buildings in Yorubaland (South-Western Nigeria) and the mechanics of their upkeep. The article also discusses the parameters of formulating a balanced protection-use model for the management of these buildings.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining participatory observations and documentation, semi-structured interviews and the review of church compendiums. Forty-four church buildings were identified and surveyed, and sixty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted.FindingsA gradual change in how communities value colonial-era churches in contrast to other structures with ecclesiastical legacies has been identified. The challenges and threats to their protection are investigated, revealing a variety of contextual constraints in the current management structure, which prioritizes the expansion of useful space over the conservation ...
This chapter introduces the institution of the waqf in the Islamic world and its role in shaping a distinctively Islamic landscape, in particular, the provision of a range of urban amenities. The historical processes of managing and... more
This chapter introduces the institution of the waqf in the Islamic world and its role in shaping a distinctively Islamic landscape, in particular, the provision of a range of urban amenities. The historical processes of managing and authorising the maintenance of waqf properties are introduced, drawing on scholarship in the area as well as the archival research on which this volume is based. The chapter addresses the way centralisation affected waqf building upkeep practices and focuses on lower and mid-level decision-making on waqf building maintenance, establishing the focus and pattern of analysis of the book. A picture emerges of an institution and set of practices which were already under pressure when the British administration assumed control of Cyprus.
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There is little known about the architectural conservation policies, mechanisms, and dynamics within the contested boundaries of unrecognised states. This paper redresses this lack of information a...
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Although attempts for formulating sustainable approaches in heritage management have been ongoing since the 1980s, sustainability dimensions in the context of ‘reconstruction’ have remained an unexplored research area. By investigating... more
Although attempts for formulating sustainable approaches in heritage management have been ongoing since the 1980s, sustainability dimensions in the context of ‘reconstruction’ have remained an unexplored research area. By investigating the case of the ruined Khaz’al Diwan in Kuwait, an architectural heritage site in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage (WH) Tentative List, we explore and compare the roles of the ‘cultural continuity’ and ‘environmental protection’ pillars of sustainability in reconstruction planning. By employing rapid ethnographic surveying and case study methods, we first investigate the approach to ‘cultural continuity’ from the State’s stance and through local community perceptions. Albeit with nuances, the surveying revealed a preference for historicist reconstruction. However, the Khaz’al Diwan, like most of the heritage structures in the Gulf region, was originally constructed with coral stone, which is ...
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ABSTRACT The protection of colonial-era buildings as part of the modern heritage is now viewed more positively as part of the texture of urban memory and fabric. However, there are major challenges for the preservation of ecclesiastical... more
ABSTRACT The protection of colonial-era buildings as part of the modern heritage is now viewed more positively as part of the texture of urban memory and fabric. However, there are major challenges for the preservation of ecclesiastical buildings erected in Christianized non-Western territories during the European colonial era. By utilizing physical observations, interviews and primary documents, this paper examines the current conservation state of colonial-era Anglican ecclesiastical heritage as well as the mechanics of their upkeep, using the early church buildings in Yorubaland (South West Nigeria) as the empirical focus. This article raises questions about challenges and threats to their protection, revealing the deficiencies in conservation know-how and problems with the current management structure, in particular the way the original buildings’ fabric is modified or the building demolished to create more space. The paper proposes a set of recommendations for building institutional capacity for a better way forward. The example of Anglican ecclesiastical heritage in Yorubaland offers insights into colonial-era’s heritage in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
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This chapter deals with the period from 1935 to 1960: a socially and politically complex time, which saw the further erosion of the traditional waqf practices, especially close community involvement with monitoring buildings and... more
This chapter deals with the period from 1935 to 1960: a socially and politically complex time, which saw the further erosion of the traditional waqf practices, especially close community involvement with monitoring buildings and initiating work on them. The chapter links a range of legislative and conservation initiatives to the increasingly complex local and international political context. This included the continuing Greek nationalist unrest and conflicts in the Turkish-Cypriot community between more traditional Muslims and secularist Kemalists. Conservation policy became rather convoluted. On the one hand, it sought to meet modern expectations of protection and conservation of all the island’s heritage buildings, yet on the other it was used to now support the more traditional Muslims who were seen as less threatening to British interests.
ABSTRACT Perhaps the most challenging heritage management issue since the beginning of the modern conservation movement relates to religious buildings and sites. This paper investigates approaches to the management of religious heritage... more
ABSTRACT Perhaps the most challenging heritage management issue since the beginning of the modern conservation movement relates to religious buildings and sites. This paper investigates approaches to the management of religious heritage buildings and sites in Osogbo, a multireligious Nigerian city, through the perspectives of various stakeholders. These stakeholders include the State, and its role in formal legislation and enforcement, the religious authorities as heritage owners and decision-makers, local communities’ understanding of heritage, and expert opinions about the properties. Drawing on physical observations, ethnographic assessment methods and secondary literature, the paper demonstrates how decisions taken by political leaders to construct a secularised national heritage have shaped the community’s cultural heritage perceptions, alienated from religious connotations. This selective use of the past gave heritage owners a free hand in decision-making about conservation, without taking into consideration historic and architectural/artistic values. It has also rendered expert judgment marginal.
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Abstract This paper seeks to further the discussion that positions archaeological interpretation as a practice entangled between professional ethics and political circumstances. Perhaps the most obvious route for the mobilisation of... more
Abstract This paper seeks to further the discussion that positions archaeological interpretation as a practice entangled between professional ethics and political circumstances. Perhaps the most obvious route for the mobilisation of extant architecture is to recruit it into nationalist discourses. An example of this is the case of the Roman Bath-Gymnasium Complex at Salamis (Cyprus), which can be used to illustrate how nationalism can call forth convenient narratives about material culture. Excavations (1952–1974) revealed the remains of a massive structure, and Vassos Karageorghis, the principal excavator, identified it as a ‘Gymnasium’. This paper demonstrates that Karageorghis’ hitherto well-accepted interpretation remains largely conjectural due to the absence of hard archaeological evidence. By examining the architectural characteristics of the remains and analysing the published excavation data, the paper explains how the present structure belongs to a bath-gymnasium complex, erected during the Roman period, and is an amalgamation of Roman and Greek culture. The paper revolves around the argument that the Romans’ role in negotiating the socio-cultural differences, which ultimately enriched the existing structures, has been systematically downplayed in the architectural narratives for the sake of presenting a homogeneous ethnic-cultural continuity from the Homeric Greek world down to the contemporary Cypriote Greek society.
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Cyprus came under British control in 1878. At this time the Western-based orientalist mind-set, which saw ‘Ottoman’ as a synonym for stagnation was at its zenith, and this view was strategically disseminated as the European empires... more
Cyprus came under British control in 1878. At this time the Western-based orientalist mind-set, which saw ‘Ottoman’ as a synonym for stagnation was at its zenith, and this view was strategically disseminated as the European empires expanded. This also coincided with the evolution of the ethnic-nationalism that facilitated the formation of national heritage constructs. By analysing the case of Cyprus, a place which is entangled with British colonial governance as well as revolutionary Turkey, this paper aims to widen the discussion on the conservation trajectory of the Ottoman built heritage in post-Ottoman environments. Approaches to the restoration, interpretation, and management of Cyprus’s Ottoman buildings between 1878 and 1960 are dissected, assessed and categorized through British-era archival collections. The history of conservation practices is contextualised in changing political and professional perspectives, which reveal the role of Eurocentric paradigms of orientalism and nationalism in managing the perception and treatment processes of Ottoman-built heritage.
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How did the Waqf, a widespread Islamic historic institution in the non-Western world which promoted traditional building upkeep and maintenance systems, cope with the emerging architectural conservation understandings of the modern era?... more
How did the Waqf, a widespread Islamic historic institution in the non-Western world which promoted traditional building upkeep and maintenance systems, cope with the emerging architectural conservation understandings of the modern era? How did colonial transfers of knowledge, expertise and political considerations influence these systems? The present study explores these questions by examining the case of the Ottoman Waqf (Evkaf) institution in Cyprus. By collecting and analysing archival evidence on conservation projects, initiated during the British colonial period between 1878 and 1960, a model framework of initiation, authorisation and implementation processes of the upkeep of the Waqf maintained properties has been identified. This framework has been used to show the transitional role of the colonial influence at different stages, which finally led to the dissolution of the Waqf system’s sustainable elements, and initiated the emergence of selective architectural conservation practices. By shifting the focus of conservation discourses to look specifically into the background dynamics of the institutional practice, a new argument has been developed. This revealed how heritage conservation practices are negotiated with the existing institutions and how they are transferred and/or transformed at different levels of institutional governance.
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Colonisation initiated the transfer of Western ideas about both heritage discourses and conservation understandings into the non-Western world. The process turned colonised territories into domains where developing heritage views in... more
Colonisation initiated the transfer of Western ideas about both heritage discourses and conservation understandings into the non-Western world. The process turned colonised territories into domains where developing heritage views in metropolitan countries were put into practice. Coinciding with the evolution of heritage discourses and modern architectural conservation movements in the West, the British colonial era (1878-1960) in Cyprus became a period where the importation of knowledge introduced new ways of thinking about the treatment of ancient buildings. Based on archival sources, this paper sheds light on the genesis of modern understandings of architectural conservation in Cyprus during the early colonial period (1878-1905), which established the foundations that future practice would be built on. An historical account of the early conservation activities at the key Gothic cathedral-mosques is presented, which illustrates the role of the medievalist conservation ethos importe...