“The story of a quest for treasure turns out to be the story of the quest for a story.” This is how one scholar described a set of medieval Arabic tales, however, I find it also serves as a somewhat fitting definition for the work of archaeology. Phone: 949-824-4013 Address: Department of Anthropology University of California, Irvine
The destruction of cultural heritage performed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq is often superficially e... more The destruction of cultural heritage performed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq is often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism. Analyses like these posit that there is an 'Islamic' manner of imagining the past and that the iconoclastic actions of terrorist organizations are one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy locales. However, this is not the full picture. This book explores the diverse ways Muslims have engaged with the material legacies of ancient and pre-Islamic societies, as well as how Islam's heritage has been framed and experienced over time. Long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. https://www.intellectbooks.com/imagining-antiquity-in-islamic-societies
International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 2017
International Journal of Islamic Architecture Special Issue Imagining Localities of Antiquity in ... more International Journal of Islamic Architecture Special Issue Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies In honor of the life of Dr. Khaled al-Asaad Guest Editor: Stephennie Mulder https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2017/00000006/00000002 The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism. But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia. This special issue presents scholars from across disciplines who engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the ancient past in Islamic societies.
In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shan... more In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shanon Dawdy has suggested that “[s]ociety presents itself simultaneously as a ruin and as a kind of playland” (2016, 147). This notion that the ruin is both a product of, and a basis for, heritage practice serves as a useful intervention into long-standing treatments of ruins as exotic, romantic, and awaiting the discovery, glorification, and preservation of those that might give them meaning. In the present essay, I further challenge heritage approaches to ruins through an examination of the ways in which they have been associated, in various Muslim cultural contexts, with a set of distinctly sentient, yet non-human actors, the jinn. This pairing between place and spirits has shaped long-standing affective responses and practical engagements between local (human) inhabitants and their archaeologically rich landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. This essay examines how those en...
... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the... more ... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the Wadi al-'Arab The summer campaign in 2009 was devoted to a sur-vey in the Wadi al-'Arab, part of a three-year project within the framework of the Gadara Region Project. ...
International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 2017
The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was ... more The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was reported as part of a list of incidents that indicated the precarious state of cultural heritage in the Middle East. In light of such events, this article queries the following: does the cultural heritage of the Middle East need saving? If so, by, from and for whom? In exploring the moral discourses and political motivations that anchor such calls for intervention, I examine how notions of care manifest themselves in heritage practice. In response to the moral outrage that often accompanies acts of cultural destruction, this research suggests the possible expansion of the ethical framework by which the material past becomes part of social life. Through an investigation into local engagement with artefacts and historical sites, specifically the sabbakhin in Egypt and contemporary agriculturalists in northern Syria, I describe forms of vernacular heritage linked to unstated assertions to the commons. At stake is a reframing of the hegemonic discourses of heritage management, one that often reads such activities as mere materialism unable to cultivate the correct cosmopolitan disposition for how the past should be valued. Ultimately, this article highlights the risk in overstating ideological forms of destruction as the cultural norm associated with Muslim societies.
In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shan... more In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shanon Dawdy has suggested that “[s]ociety presents itself simultaneously as a ruin and as a kind of playland” (2016, 147). This notion that the ruin is both a product of, and a basis for, heritage practice serves as a useful intervention into long-standing treatments of ruins as exotic, romantic, and awaiting the discovery, glorification, and preservation of those that might give them meaning. In the present essay, I further challenge heritage approaches to ruins through an examination of the ways in which they have been associated, in various Muslim cultural contexts, with a set of distinctly sentient, yet non-human actors, the jinn. This pairing between place and spirits has shaped long-standing affective responses and practical engagements between local (human) inhabitants and their archaeologically rich landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. This essay examines how those engagements often push against contemporary discourses highlighting the sublime aspects of ruins and the quasi-sacred nature of heritage. To that end, the following guiding questions structure my contribution: Can contemporary heritage discourses accommodate practices in which humans share control and ownership of the material past with spectral others? How might we reframe the mandate to preserve such ruins in light of alternative perspectives that mark these sites as sinister, and/or meaningful, precisely because of their ruination? Can universalizing heritage discourses accommodate practices that derive value from the material past without also subscribing to explicit preservationist goals? Such questions offer an opportunity to consider the inclusion of the Unseen, and perhaps others, whose perspectives have gone unrecognized, within professional heritage management and its hermeneutics of the past.
The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was ... more The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was reported as part of a list of incidents that indicated the precarious state of cultural heritage in the Middle East. In light of such events, this article queries the following: does the cultural heritage of the Middle East need saving? If so, by, from and for whom? In exploring the moral discourses and political motivations that anchor such calls for intervention, I examine how notions of care manifest themselves in heritage practice. In response to the moral outrage that often accompanies acts of cultural destruction, this research suggests the possible expansion of the ethical framework by which the material past becomes part of social life. Through an investigation into local engagement with artefacts and historical sites, specifically the sabbakhin in Egypt and contemporary agriculturalists in northern Syria, I describe forms of vernacular heritage linked to unstated assertions to the commons. At stake is a reframing of the hegemonic discourses of heritage management, one that often reads such activities as mere materialism unable to cultivate the correct cosmopolitan disposition for how the past should be valued. Ultimately, this article highlights the risk in overstating ideological forms of destruction as the cultural norm associated with Muslim societies.
... In comparing the efforts to engage with Cairo's historical landscape through the product... more ... In comparing the efforts to engage with Cairo's historical landscape through the production of the new al-Azhar Park funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Fustat archaeological zone, the location of the first Islamic period settlement in the ... (Kubiak 1987: 11– ...
This paper argues that archaeologists do themselves a disservice when they become content to tran... more This paper argues that archaeologists do themselves a disservice when they become content to transform their objects of study into sites of memory with the hope that this is a sufficient analysis. Memory strikes me as a much more valuable starting place than an end point. Such memories are the building blocks for a much richer story of the lessons that are supposed to be learned and the ones that are actually gained. Moreover this is not static. What is so exciting is that the monuments, rock reliefs, natural places, and others that serve as our teachers themselves mature and change with the world in which they inhabit. Their lessons are not always the same. At times they might be mute while at others they can be quite vocal. Sometimes they might speak quite softly and it is incumbent upon us to listen carefully lest they truly become absent and forgotten.
The landscape that emerged on the Arab-Byzantine frontier between the 7 th and 10 th centuries AD... more The landscape that emerged on the Arab-Byzantine frontier between the 7 th and 10 th centuries AD offers a valuable case study in the convergence of the multiple logics of spatial production that emerged out of early Islamic discourses of territoriality, state actions, and the cultural practices of settlement and land use. This article examines how a focus on the spiritual dimension of this particular frontier landscape can offer a counterpoint to interpretations of jihād as a conquest ideology that enables a spatial logic of territorial legitimation for an emerging state apparatus (see for instance Blankinship 1994; Bonner 1996). The argument here is that the archaeological and textual records of this foundational frontier of the Muslim world indicate that such a landscape was not constricted solely by state discourses of territorial control and military strategy. To be sure, the state was responsible for much of the physical transformation of this stretch of territory in northern Syria and southern Anatolia – known in Arabic by the terms al-thughūr (the marches) and al-'awāsim (the protectorates). The region was both highly fortified and stationed with large numbers of troops. Yet, in the process of frontier-making which has come to serve in anthropological and historical analysis as a major site for examination of cultural contract and territoriality (Turner 1893; Bohanan and Plog 1967; Kopytoff 1987; Noyes 1992) I suggest that there is a tendency to overlook the contributions to the landscape by a host of other actors when attention is focused on the material production of state enterprises.
Explores the value of negative evidence in understanding the archaeology of the famous city and r... more Explores the value of negative evidence in understanding the archaeology of the famous city and region of Petra following the Islamic Conquests in the seventh century CE. This is the publication version of a paper presented to ICHAJ in 2010.
Archaeological excavations in North Africa emerge in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries as ... more Archaeological excavations in North Africa emerge in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries as part of the European colonial projects and the development of Orientalist scholarship. For the most part these were French expeditions in the present day countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with some Italian excavations in Lybia the greatest number of which concentrated on the *classical period cities of the North African littoral. Indeed, North Africa only begins to emerge as part of the historical record largely as a result of the Phoenician and latter Roman colonization which established an impressive network of roads and cities all along the southern rim of the Mediterranean. This process of urbanization and the workings of Roman imperialism often served as ideological support for the new European colonizers who sought to establish what they saw as a similar mission civilatrice in the various regions of North Africa. This early archaeological work concentrated most heavily on the great classical cities of Carthage, Leptis Magna, Timgad and Volubilis to just mention a few, as a demonstration of the grandeur and accomplishments of a colonial settler society that had turned the region into an agriculturally productive imperial engine. More recently archaeological work of the classical period has begun to examine the relationship of these colonial centers to a largely indigenous rural hinterland in an effort to understand the impact of Carthage and Rome on the substrate " tribal " societies. Despite the emphasis placed on the classical period during European colonialism of North Africa, the early 20 th century saw some limited efforts to conduct archaeological research of the fully historical period beginning with the seventh-century transition of North Africa as a Byzantine domain to one under Arabo-Islamic control. These investigations dovetailed neatly with the questions of urbanism that colleagues of the classical period had begun to outline. Much of the efforts of the French archaeologist of various Islamic period cities throughout North Africa was spent in developing an ideal typical notion of the " Islamic City. " Indeed the cities of North Africa, both living and ruined, became the prototypes both for understanding Islamic period urbanism and developing notions of space as fixed by Islamic principles. Such monolithic and essentializing notions of how Islam and the Arab conquests ordered space, particularly urban space, still dominate much of the current debates in understanding the transition of the Middle East in the Islamic period. North Africa's emergence in the seventh century as part of the Dar al-Islam (lit. the house of Islam) following the conquests of the Arab armies lead by Uqba Ibn Nafi was to signal a profound change in the course of this region. Of the most important changes that this area entertained were the migration of large number of Arabs and other Easterners, and the establishment of Islam and the Arabic language. Even in its new Arabic name al-Magrib (lit. the West or where the sun sets) came to symbolize its position within a new geo-political order that was to be dominated first by the Umayyad's based in Damascus and then in the eight century by the Abbasids with their capital at
This article is the concluding commentary to the volume in which it is published. It offers a cri... more This article is the concluding commentary to the volume in which it is published. It offers a critical examination of the analytical value of sacred space in archaeology and offers an example from field work on Islamic period sites in northern Syria.
The destruction of cultural heritage performed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq is often superficially e... more The destruction of cultural heritage performed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq is often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism. Analyses like these posit that there is an 'Islamic' manner of imagining the past and that the iconoclastic actions of terrorist organizations are one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy locales. However, this is not the full picture. This book explores the diverse ways Muslims have engaged with the material legacies of ancient and pre-Islamic societies, as well as how Islam's heritage has been framed and experienced over time. Long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. https://www.intellectbooks.com/imagining-antiquity-in-islamic-societies
International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 2017
International Journal of Islamic Architecture Special Issue Imagining Localities of Antiquity in ... more International Journal of Islamic Architecture Special Issue Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies In honor of the life of Dr. Khaled al-Asaad Guest Editor: Stephennie Mulder https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2017/00000006/00000002 The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism. But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia. This special issue presents scholars from across disciplines who engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the ancient past in Islamic societies.
In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shan... more In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shanon Dawdy has suggested that “[s]ociety presents itself simultaneously as a ruin and as a kind of playland” (2016, 147). This notion that the ruin is both a product of, and a basis for, heritage practice serves as a useful intervention into long-standing treatments of ruins as exotic, romantic, and awaiting the discovery, glorification, and preservation of those that might give them meaning. In the present essay, I further challenge heritage approaches to ruins through an examination of the ways in which they have been associated, in various Muslim cultural contexts, with a set of distinctly sentient, yet non-human actors, the jinn. This pairing between place and spirits has shaped long-standing affective responses and practical engagements between local (human) inhabitants and their archaeologically rich landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. This essay examines how those en...
... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the... more ... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the Wadi al-'Arab The summer campaign in 2009 was devoted to a sur-vey in the Wadi al-'Arab, part of a three-year project within the framework of the Gadara Region Project. ...
International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 2017
The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was ... more The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was reported as part of a list of incidents that indicated the precarious state of cultural heritage in the Middle East. In light of such events, this article queries the following: does the cultural heritage of the Middle East need saving? If so, by, from and for whom? In exploring the moral discourses and political motivations that anchor such calls for intervention, I examine how notions of care manifest themselves in heritage practice. In response to the moral outrage that often accompanies acts of cultural destruction, this research suggests the possible expansion of the ethical framework by which the material past becomes part of social life. Through an investigation into local engagement with artefacts and historical sites, specifically the sabbakhin in Egypt and contemporary agriculturalists in northern Syria, I describe forms of vernacular heritage linked to unstated assertions to the commons. At stake is a reframing of the hegemonic discourses of heritage management, one that often reads such activities as mere materialism unable to cultivate the correct cosmopolitan disposition for how the past should be valued. Ultimately, this article highlights the risk in overstating ideological forms of destruction as the cultural norm associated with Muslim societies.
In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shan... more In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shanon Dawdy has suggested that “[s]ociety presents itself simultaneously as a ruin and as a kind of playland” (2016, 147). This notion that the ruin is both a product of, and a basis for, heritage practice serves as a useful intervention into long-standing treatments of ruins as exotic, romantic, and awaiting the discovery, glorification, and preservation of those that might give them meaning. In the present essay, I further challenge heritage approaches to ruins through an examination of the ways in which they have been associated, in various Muslim cultural contexts, with a set of distinctly sentient, yet non-human actors, the jinn. This pairing between place and spirits has shaped long-standing affective responses and practical engagements between local (human) inhabitants and their archaeologically rich landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. This essay examines how those engagements often push against contemporary discourses highlighting the sublime aspects of ruins and the quasi-sacred nature of heritage. To that end, the following guiding questions structure my contribution: Can contemporary heritage discourses accommodate practices in which humans share control and ownership of the material past with spectral others? How might we reframe the mandate to preserve such ruins in light of alternative perspectives that mark these sites as sinister, and/or meaningful, precisely because of their ruination? Can universalizing heritage discourses accommodate practices that derive value from the material past without also subscribing to explicit preservationist goals? Such questions offer an opportunity to consider the inclusion of the Unseen, and perhaps others, whose perspectives have gone unrecognized, within professional heritage management and its hermeneutics of the past.
The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was ... more The early 2014 bombing in Cairo that severely damaged the newly renovated Islamic Art Museum was reported as part of a list of incidents that indicated the precarious state of cultural heritage in the Middle East. In light of such events, this article queries the following: does the cultural heritage of the Middle East need saving? If so, by, from and for whom? In exploring the moral discourses and political motivations that anchor such calls for intervention, I examine how notions of care manifest themselves in heritage practice. In response to the moral outrage that often accompanies acts of cultural destruction, this research suggests the possible expansion of the ethical framework by which the material past becomes part of social life. Through an investigation into local engagement with artefacts and historical sites, specifically the sabbakhin in Egypt and contemporary agriculturalists in northern Syria, I describe forms of vernacular heritage linked to unstated assertions to the commons. At stake is a reframing of the hegemonic discourses of heritage management, one that often reads such activities as mere materialism unable to cultivate the correct cosmopolitan disposition for how the past should be valued. Ultimately, this article highlights the risk in overstating ideological forms of destruction as the cultural norm associated with Muslim societies.
... In comparing the efforts to engage with Cairo's historical landscape through the product... more ... In comparing the efforts to engage with Cairo's historical landscape through the production of the new al-Azhar Park funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the Fustat archaeological zone, the location of the first Islamic period settlement in the ... (Kubiak 1987: 11– ...
This paper argues that archaeologists do themselves a disservice when they become content to tran... more This paper argues that archaeologists do themselves a disservice when they become content to transform their objects of study into sites of memory with the hope that this is a sufficient analysis. Memory strikes me as a much more valuable starting place than an end point. Such memories are the building blocks for a much richer story of the lessons that are supposed to be learned and the ones that are actually gained. Moreover this is not static. What is so exciting is that the monuments, rock reliefs, natural places, and others that serve as our teachers themselves mature and change with the world in which they inhabit. Their lessons are not always the same. At times they might be mute while at others they can be quite vocal. Sometimes they might speak quite softly and it is incumbent upon us to listen carefully lest they truly become absent and forgotten.
The landscape that emerged on the Arab-Byzantine frontier between the 7 th and 10 th centuries AD... more The landscape that emerged on the Arab-Byzantine frontier between the 7 th and 10 th centuries AD offers a valuable case study in the convergence of the multiple logics of spatial production that emerged out of early Islamic discourses of territoriality, state actions, and the cultural practices of settlement and land use. This article examines how a focus on the spiritual dimension of this particular frontier landscape can offer a counterpoint to interpretations of jihād as a conquest ideology that enables a spatial logic of territorial legitimation for an emerging state apparatus (see for instance Blankinship 1994; Bonner 1996). The argument here is that the archaeological and textual records of this foundational frontier of the Muslim world indicate that such a landscape was not constricted solely by state discourses of territorial control and military strategy. To be sure, the state was responsible for much of the physical transformation of this stretch of territory in northern Syria and southern Anatolia – known in Arabic by the terms al-thughūr (the marches) and al-'awāsim (the protectorates). The region was both highly fortified and stationed with large numbers of troops. Yet, in the process of frontier-making which has come to serve in anthropological and historical analysis as a major site for examination of cultural contract and territoriality (Turner 1893; Bohanan and Plog 1967; Kopytoff 1987; Noyes 1992) I suggest that there is a tendency to overlook the contributions to the landscape by a host of other actors when attention is focused on the material production of state enterprises.
Explores the value of negative evidence in understanding the archaeology of the famous city and r... more Explores the value of negative evidence in understanding the archaeology of the famous city and region of Petra following the Islamic Conquests in the seventh century CE. This is the publication version of a paper presented to ICHAJ in 2010.
Archaeological excavations in North Africa emerge in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries as ... more Archaeological excavations in North Africa emerge in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries as part of the European colonial projects and the development of Orientalist scholarship. For the most part these were French expeditions in the present day countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with some Italian excavations in Lybia the greatest number of which concentrated on the *classical period cities of the North African littoral. Indeed, North Africa only begins to emerge as part of the historical record largely as a result of the Phoenician and latter Roman colonization which established an impressive network of roads and cities all along the southern rim of the Mediterranean. This process of urbanization and the workings of Roman imperialism often served as ideological support for the new European colonizers who sought to establish what they saw as a similar mission civilatrice in the various regions of North Africa. This early archaeological work concentrated most heavily on the great classical cities of Carthage, Leptis Magna, Timgad and Volubilis to just mention a few, as a demonstration of the grandeur and accomplishments of a colonial settler society that had turned the region into an agriculturally productive imperial engine. More recently archaeological work of the classical period has begun to examine the relationship of these colonial centers to a largely indigenous rural hinterland in an effort to understand the impact of Carthage and Rome on the substrate " tribal " societies. Despite the emphasis placed on the classical period during European colonialism of North Africa, the early 20 th century saw some limited efforts to conduct archaeological research of the fully historical period beginning with the seventh-century transition of North Africa as a Byzantine domain to one under Arabo-Islamic control. These investigations dovetailed neatly with the questions of urbanism that colleagues of the classical period had begun to outline. Much of the efforts of the French archaeologist of various Islamic period cities throughout North Africa was spent in developing an ideal typical notion of the " Islamic City. " Indeed the cities of North Africa, both living and ruined, became the prototypes both for understanding Islamic period urbanism and developing notions of space as fixed by Islamic principles. Such monolithic and essentializing notions of how Islam and the Arab conquests ordered space, particularly urban space, still dominate much of the current debates in understanding the transition of the Middle East in the Islamic period. North Africa's emergence in the seventh century as part of the Dar al-Islam (lit. the house of Islam) following the conquests of the Arab armies lead by Uqba Ibn Nafi was to signal a profound change in the course of this region. Of the most important changes that this area entertained were the migration of large number of Arabs and other Easterners, and the establishment of Islam and the Arabic language. Even in its new Arabic name al-Magrib (lit. the West or where the sun sets) came to symbolize its position within a new geo-political order that was to be dominated first by the Umayyad's based in Damascus and then in the eight century by the Abbasids with their capital at
This article is the concluding commentary to the volume in which it is published. It offers a cri... more This article is the concluding commentary to the volume in which it is published. It offers a critical examination of the analytical value of sacred space in archaeology and offers an example from field work on Islamic period sites in northern Syria.
Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, April 4-5, 2014
The symposium aims to reassess the stu... more Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, April 4-5, 2014
The symposium aims to reassess the study and the representation of the Middle East in scholarship and museums today. Studying the Middle East in the current Western academic and museological discourse entails encountering a history of dichotomies and contradictions. A manifest example, both physically and metaphorically, is provided by a visit to some art museums in the Western world: while, for example, art from ancient Mesopotamia – which occupied the same space as much of modern day Iraq, Syria and Iran – is often presented in direct proximity to objects deeply embedded in the Western canon, such as Classical Greek sculpture, objects from the very same region that derive from after the coming of Islam are often separated from their more ancient geographical counterparts, for instance in Islamic Art departments.
The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism.
But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia.
This special issue presents scholars from across disciplines who engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the ancient past in Islamic societies.
People are drawn to places where geology performs its miracles: ice-cold spring waters gushing fr... more People are drawn to places where geology performs its miracles: ice-cold spring waters gushing from the rock, mysterious caves which act as conduits for ancestors and divinities traveling back and forth to the underworld, sacred bodies of water where communities make libations and offer sacrifices. This volume presents a series of archaeological landscapes from the Iranian highlands to the Anatolian Plateau, and from the Mediterranean borderlands to Mesoamerica. Contributors all have a deep interest in the making and the long-term history of unorthodox places of human interaction with the mineral world, specifically the landscapes of rocks and water. Working with rock reliefs, sacred springs and lakes, caves, cairns, ruins and other meaningful places, they draw attention to the need for a rigorous field methodology and theoretical framework for working with such special places. At a time when network models, urban-centered and macro-scale perspectives dominate discussions of ancient landscapes, this unusual volume takes us to remote, unmappable places of cultural practice, social imagination and political appropriation. It offers not only a diverse set of case studies approaching small meaningful places in their special geological grounding, but also suggests new methodologies and interpretive approaches to understand places and the processes of place-making.
Contexts reports on the annual activities - research, education, exhibits, and collaborations - o... more Contexts reports on the annual activities - research, education, exhibits, and collaborations - of Brown University's Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. Now in its 40th year, Contexts' 2015 reports on archaeological research around the world, innovative uses and expansions of the HMA's collections, new collaborations with the RISD Museum and across the world, and outreach to diverse publics, including public schools and our university community.
Reaction piece in Foreign Affairs online discussing heritage issues in Egypt follow a call by a s... more Reaction piece in Foreign Affairs online discussing heritage issues in Egypt follow a call by a salafist preacher to destroy the Pyramids of Giza.
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Papers by Ian B Straughn
The symposium aims to reassess the study and the representation of the Middle East in scholarship and museums today. Studying the Middle East in the current Western academic and museological discourse entails encountering a history of dichotomies and contradictions. A manifest example, both physically and metaphorically, is provided by a visit to some art museums in the Western world: while, for example, art from ancient Mesopotamia – which occupied the same space as much of modern day Iraq, Syria and Iran – is often presented in direct proximity to objects deeply embedded in the Western canon, such as Classical Greek sculpture, objects from the very same region that derive from after the coming of Islam are often separated from their more ancient geographical counterparts, for instance in Islamic Art departments.
Special Issue
Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies
In honor of the life of Dr. Khaled al-Asaad
Guest Editor: Stephennie Mulder
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2017/00000006/00000002
The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism.
But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia.
This special issue presents scholars from across disciplines who engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the ancient past in Islamic societies.