All Things Arabia

Front matter

Arts and Archaeology of the Islamic World

All Things Arabia

Arabian Identity and Material Culture

PART 2 Imagining Arabia: Exotic, Fabulous, and Misplaced Things

4 Circulating Things, Circulating Stereotypes: Representations of Arabia in Eighteenth-Century

Imagination 69 Ileana Baird

5 “Who Will Change New Lamps for Old Ones?”: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp in British and

American Children’s Entertainment 88 Jennie MacDonald

6 Creative Cartography: From the Arabian Desert to the Garden of Allah 105 Holly Edwards PART 3

Emblems of Arabia: Things as Identity Markers

7 Kinetic Symbol: Falconry as Image Vehicle in the United Arab Emirates 127 Yannis Hadjinicolaou

VI CONTENTS

8 AlSadu Weaving: Significance and Circulation in the Arabian Gulf 143 Rana Al-Ogayyel and Ceyda Oskay

9 Head Coverings, Arab Identity, and New Materialism 163

Joseph Donica

PART 4 Post-Oil Arabia: Things, Memory, and Local Identity

10 Written in Silver: Protective Medallions from Inner Oman 179 James Redman u From Cradle to Grave: A Life Story in Jewelry 193 Marie-Claire Bakker and Kara McKeown

12 Cine-Things: The Revival of the Emirati Past in Nojoom Alghanem’s Cinemascape 213 Chrysavgi Papagianni

Afterword: All Things Collected 225 Hülya Yağcıoğlu

Bibliography 231 Index 258

Acknowledgements

Projects such as the present one, which involve a collaboration of scholars coming from different fields to fill in a new niche in the study of the Arabian Peninsula, an area that has only recently gained scholarly attention, are only possible through sustained and generous support from a variety of stakeholders. We are therefore indebted, first and foremost, to our institution, and particularly the Office of Research at Zayed University, which generously supported this project through a two-year Research Incentive Fund grant that allowed us to conduct research both nationally and internationally, acquire the resources needed for completing this project, and cover the costs of publishing the book in Open Access. We are particularly thankful to Dr. Michael Allen, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs and Research, and to Dr. Fares Howari, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, for their timely support and encouragement.

Ileana Baird is also grateful for the extraordinary opportunity she had to conduct research as a Visiting Research Fellow at The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, in the spring of 2019. I would like to thank Nicole Bouché, the Executive Director of the library, for being so accommodating and supportive of my research, Susan Walker, head of Public Services, whose extraordinary expertise helped me unearth superb resources, both visual and textual, from the library’s outstanding collections, Cynthia Roman, curator of Prints, Drawings and Paintings, whose insightful questions and comments made me think in new ways about my work, and Kristen McDonald and Scott Poglitsch, catalogue assistants, for their prompt and professional help in accessing the resources I needed during my fellowship and beyond. I also owe special thanks to Robin Dougherty, expert librarian in Middle East Studies at Sterling Memorial Library, for her useful guidance in the library’s resources.

Our work has benefitted immensely from the expert knowledge of our readers, who contributed their time, ideas, and expertise to make the chapters included in this collection the best they could be. We would like to thank Dr. Ian Almond, from Georgetown University in Qatar, Dr. Keireine Canavan, from Cardiff University, UK, Dr. Kevin McGeough, from University of Lethbridge, Canada, Dr. Emily West, from University of Hawaii Manoa, USA, Dr. John Thabiti Willis, from Carleton College, USA, Dr. Sarina Wakefield, from University of Leicester, UK, and our own colleagues, Dr. Sabrina DeTurk and Dr. Szidonia Haragos, from Zayed University, UAE. Their insightful comments and suggestions for improvement have been invaluable to our contributors during the revision process. Special thanks are owed as well to the two anonymous readers commissioned by Brill to evaluate our book for their attentive, knowledgeable, and very specific feedback on our manuscript.

We would also like to thank Dr. Arnould J.M. Vrolijk, curator at the Oriental Manuscripts and Rare Books Special Collections at the Leiden University Library, who helped us trace the illustration on the cover of this book, and Mohammed Yousif Al Zarouni, curator at The Sharjah Archeology Museum, for his assistance in obtaining permissions for the images used in two of our chapters. The help of our colleagues from Zayed University Library, Dr. Mary Sengati-Zimba, Dr. Judith Mavodza, Mary Jean Bernabe, and Hanin Abueida, has allowed us to promptly acquire the publications we needed and make rapid progress on our work. Their unabated support is highly appreciated.

Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to our series editors, Marcus Milwright, Mariam Rosser-Owen, and Margaret Graves, for their prompt guidance during the revision process and for accepting our book in Brill’s Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World series. We also thank Dr. Maurits van den Boogert, Brill’s Publishing Director, for his genuine interest in our work, and Teddi Dols, Brill’s Middle East, Islamic, and African Studies Editor, for her expert and continued help in navigating the complex process of turning our manuscript into a book.

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Map of archeological sites excavated in the Near East where cuboid incense burners have been found 24

Map of archeological sites excavated in the Arabian Peninsula where cuboid incense burners have been found 25

Cuboid incense burner DA12728, Ras al-Jinz, Sultanate of Oman. Courtesy of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman 27 Cuboid incense burner DA12728, Ras al-Jinz, found in situ from Building XI, Room 9, with Harappan seal impressions from Building VII, Room 8. Courtesy of Dr. Dino Politis 27 Cuboid incense burner fragment DA10850, Ras al-Jinz. Courtesy of The Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman 27

Cuboid incense burners from Sir Leonard Woolley’s excavations notes at Ur, Iraq. Courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum 29 Incense burner from Ur-Larsa Period (UM U.6812; line drawing by W. Zimmerle and Fatima Abboud). Courtesy of The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia 30

Incense burner from Shahbwa, Yemen (BM 125682; 1937, 0507.1). Courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum 32

Old South Arabian incense burner inscribed with four scent notes dn, kmkm, drm and qst (UM Philadelphia 50-47-31). Courtesy of The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia 35 Fragment of an incense burner leg on display in the Tayma Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography (line drawing by W. Zimmerle and Fatima Abboud). Courtesy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tourism and Antiquities 35 Cuboid incense burner with four legs and four horns from Dhofar. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2012 38

Craft training center in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman, where adults and children train to make

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4.6 incense burners. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 201 38

The “roof” of an incense burner as an architectural model from Dhofar. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2014 39

A potter designing an incense burner in Dhofar. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2014 40

A potter cutting architectural features onto her Dhofari incense burner. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2015 40

A Dhofari woman wearing an al-kanūn during a heritage festival, Sultanate of Oman. Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2014 40 Mid-twentieth-century pearl jewelry. Photograph by Victoria Penziner Hightower with permission from The Sharjah Heritage Museum, U.A.E 46

H. Moll, Arabia. Agreeable to Modern History. Printed and sold by T. Bowles & I. Bowles, Cornhill, 1736(?). Courtesy of The David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford University 70 William Hogarth, Taste in High Life [graphic]. Etching on wove paper. Print made by Isaac Mills after William Hogarth’s painting, without the artist’s permission, London, 1798. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 73 The Honey-Moon [graphic]. Mezzotint, hand-colored. Printed for Carington Bowles in St. Paul’s Church Yard, London, 1777. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 74 Telling Fortune in Coffee-Grounds [graphic]. Engraving on laid paper, hand-colored. Published by Robert Sayer, London, 1790. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 75 James Gillray, La belle assemblée [graphic]. Etching with stipple on laid paper. Published by H. Humphrey, London, 1787. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 75 Phillip Dawe, The Beauty Unmask‘d [graphic]. Mezzotint, hand-colored. Printed for Carington Bowles, London, 1770. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 77

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The Female Florist’s [graphic]. Mezzotint, hand-colored. Printed for Robert Sayer, London, 1773. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 77

The Bottle Imp. Lewis Walpole Library’s Collection of Eighteenth-Century Theatrical Prints. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 81

Isaac Cruikshank, The Gallery of Fashion [graphic]. Etching on wove paper, hand-colored. Published by S.W. Fores, London, 1796. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale

University 82

410 James Gillray, High Change in Bond Street; ou la

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5.4 politesse du grande monde [graphic]. Etching on wove paper, hand-colored. Published by H. Humphrey, London, 1796. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 83

A. Birrell, Sir Robert Shirley [graphic]. Engraving on wove paper. Published by Edward Harding, London, 1799. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 84

Mr. Bologna Jun-r as Kalim Azack in Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp. New York Public Library Digital Collections. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. Accessed March 1, 2019. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/510d47e4-4fb4-a3dg9-e040-

Mr. Grimaldi as Kazrac (the Chinese slave) in Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp. New York Public Library Digital Collections. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. Accessed March 1, 2019. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/510d47dd-ecc4-a3dg-e040-

Hodgson character sheet featuring “Aladdins 2nd Dress,” “Abanayar 2d Dress Commanding Aladdin to Descend into the Cavern,” “Kara Konjou,” “Table Rises,” “Kayarack Frightened,’ “Widow Ching Faints at the Sight of the Geni,” “2d Geni of the Lamp,” and “Geni of the Ring.” Published by O. Hodgson, London, 1831. Courtesy of The Victoria and Albert Museum 98 Hodgson’s Scenes in Aladdin, Seventh, including three characters: a genie of the ring, Kazrack,

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IX and Aladdin in a fantastic setting decorated with elephants, sphinxes, elaborate columns, and trees. Published by O. Hodgson, London, 1832. Courtesy of The Victoria and Albert

Museum 99

Collection dantiques, 1-7. Lampes en bronze, 8.9. Pierres gravées. In Description de l’Egypte, ou Recueil des observations et de recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l'expedition de larmée francaise (Paris: de l'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1809-1829). New York Public Library Digital Collections. General Research Division, The New York Public Library. Accessed March 1, 2019. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ items/510d47e0-2126-a3d9-e040-

Aladdin Magic Lamp Story Ad, 1927. Advertisement Gallery. Accessed March 1, 2019. https:// www.magazine-advertisements.com/ lamps-and-lighting/ 102

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Arabs Crossing the Desert, 1870. Courtesy of Najd Collection,

Switzerland 106

Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Snake Charmer, 1879. Courtesy of The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S.A 107

Robert Hitchens, The Garden of Allah. Souvenir Book of the Play. New York. Liebler, 1911. Shubert Archives, NYC 114

The Garden of Allah Pilgrimage down Pennsylvania Avenue, 1923. In Joseph Edgerton, Across the Burning Sands to the National Homecoming: The Pilgrimage 1923: The Official Story by Word and Picture of the Imperial Council Session of the AAONMS at Washington, D.C., n.p. Livingston Masonic Library, New York 119

An “Oriental Princess,” “Baghdad Clowns,” Cleopatra, “Queen of the Shrine,” and “Harem Dancers from Medinah.” In Joseph Edgerton, Across the Burning Sands, p. 136. Livingston Masonic Library, New York 119

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan with a Falcon. Reprinted from Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, Falconry as a Sport—Our Arab Heritage

(Abu Dhabi: Westerham Press, 1976), p. 41

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A one-hundred-dirham banknote with the local saker falcon, the national symbol of the U.A.E. Photograph by Yannis Hadjinicolaou 128

The Outcome of the Fight Is Uncertain (Exitus in dubio est). Emblem, Joachim Camerarius, Symbolorum & Emblematicum, III No. 32, Nirenberg 1598. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 129 [Unknown artist from Maratha], Battle Scene. Miniature, 18th century, University of Aurangabad, India 129

David Teniers the Younger, Heron Hunt with Archduke Leopold William. Oil on canvas, ca. 1654 130

A male figure holding a bird of prey dated between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D. Copper alloy. Photograph by Yannis Hadjinicolaou with permission from The Sharjah Archaeological Museum, U.A.E 132 Tetradrachm of Alexander the Great. Reverse Zeus with eagle with the Greek inscription “King Alexander,’ the fourth century B.C. Photograph by Yannis Hadjinicolaou with permission from Louvre Abu Dhabi, U.A.E 132

Cover image, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, Falconry as a Sport—Our Arab Heritage. Photograph by Yannis Hadjinicolaou 133 Zayed bin SultanAl Nahayan during a falconry expedition. Reprinted from Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, Falconry as a Sport—Our Arab Heritage, p.76 134

Friedrich II, De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus. Folio lv, Manfredi Manuscript 1258-1266, Vatican Library, Rome 135

[Unidentified Painter], Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan with falcons in the desert, ca. 1990. Oil on canvas. Photograph by Yannis Hadjinicolaou with permission from Al Ain Palace Museum, U.A.E 135

Hans Burgmair, Maximilian I on His Falconry Expedition. Woodcut, 1515. Courtesy of The British Museum 137

Cover image showing a group of Bedouins, two of them holding hooded falcons. Reprinted from Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands (Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 1994) 138

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Francesco del Cossa, detail image of Allegory of April, ca. 1468. Fresco. Courtesy of Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara 140 Aegidius Sadeler, Portrait of Mechti Kuli Beg, 1605. Etching. Courtesy of The British Museum 140

Falcon statue. Gift to the German Interior Minister from his U.A.E. counterpart, 2010. Courtesy of The German Ministry of the Interior 141

Palace Gossip. Performance reading by Raja’a Khalid, 2018. Courtesy of the

artist 142

Al-Sadu weaving with ragaoum technique displayed at The Safir Hotel, Failaka Island (date unknown). Photograph by Ceyda Oskay, 2016 143

Desert land, Al-Qassim region. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 145

City land, Riyadh. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 146

Refah Al Raheel’s individual sign. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 147 Al-Sadu carpets. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2016 149

Al-Sadu ground loom. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 149

A gazelle horn used in al-Sadu

weaving, Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 150

Symbol of stars in contemporary al-Sadu weaving by Leila Yaser. Photograph by Ceyda Oskay with permission from Al Sadu Society, Kuwait, 2016 150

Al-Sadu weaving depicting a human figure on display at The Safir Hotel, Failaka Island, Kuwait (date unknown). Photograph by Ceyda Oskay, 2016 151

Symbols of earrings in contemporary al-Sadu weaving (weaver unknown).

Photograph by Ceyda Oskay with permission from Al Sadu Society, Kuwait,

2016 152

Symbol of scissors in al-Sadu weaving (date unknown). Photograph by Ceyda

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Oskay with permission from Al Sadu Society, Kuwait, 2016 152

Al-Sadu weaving containing abstract representations of a kneeling camel with a carriage placed on top of it, used during wedding ceremonies (date unknown). Photograph by Ceyda Oskay with permission from Al-Sadu Society, Kuwait,

2016 153

Laila Yaser’s weaving showing the logo of the Kuwait television. This weaving was awarded the first place in the Al-Sadu Society’s Weaving Competition, 2015—2016. Photograph by Ceyda Oskay with permission from Al Sadu Society, Kuwait 154 Contemporary weavings by Refah Al Raheel (a) and Wazifah Al Shamrii (b), showing modern al-Sadu patterns with figurations of buildings. Photographs by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2017-2018 155

Typical black-and-white Bedouin tent. Photograph by Rana Al Ogayyel, 2019 158 Typical three-poled Bedouin tent. Reprinted from Hilden, 2010, pp. 24-25 158 Nabila Al Bassam, “Bedouin Varieties,” 1998-1999. Courtesy of the artist 159 Al-Sadu weavings by Bader Al-Mansour. Photograph by Bader Al-Mansour, 2019. Courtesy of the artist 160

Zeri Crafts Showroom, Kuwait, 2019. Photograph by Laila Al-Hamad. Courtesy of the artist 161

T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) by B.E. Leeson. Rabegh, north of Jidda, 1917. National Portrait Gallery, London 168 Several kirsh kitab hang on a wall among other bits and pieces of silverwork in a shop owned by a former såig in Nizwa, Oman 180

The horrid likeness of UmmAl Subyan etched into the surface of a kirsh

kitab 181

Kirsh kitab featuring words from SuratAl Ikhlas 12:1-4, SuratAl Buruj 85:2, Surat Yusuf 12:64, and SuratAl Imran 5:173 190

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Jewelry from the Tylos (Hellenistic) Period of Bahrain’s history (330 B.C.—622 A.D.). Courtesy of The National Museum of Bahrain 194

Protective verse on a tiny plaque hanging from a key chain dating from 1976. Photograph by Ayesha AlMarzooqi 198 Woman wearing traditional clothing at Qasr Al Hosn Festival, Abu Dhabi. Photograph by Marie-Claire Bakker, 2016 198 Van Cleef and Arpels Sweet Alhambra set. Photograph by Mariam AlFahim, 2015 199 Children in traditional clothing at Qasr Al Hosn Festival, Abu Dhabi. Photograph by Marie-Claire Bakker, 2016 201

“My grandfather had a sister called Maryam, and he loved her so much. He gave her this gift the day before she died. Just days later, God blessed him with a child and he named her Maryam. He gave this necklace to his daughter, Maryam. This was a gift from Maryam to Maryam.” Photograph and text by Maha AlHosani, 2017 201

Young girl dressed up for Eid Al Adha wearing a murt‘asha choker and a large necklace with a central hilal (crescent) element, known in the U.A.E. as almajlis. Photograph by Ayesha AlMarrar, 2018 201 ‘Irq Zayed Perfume draped with a pearl necklace featuring the image of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, set with pearls and rubies. Photograph by Rawdha Al Ketbi, 2016 202

Sisters dressed up in their flag dresses for the U.A.E. National Day, 2 December 2018. Photograph by Fatima Makki, 2018 203 Shamma Ahmad Al Ketbi wearing a short murtaasha, dressed up for the U.A.E. National Day, 2 December 2018. Photograph by Maryam Ahmad Al Ketbi,

2018 204

Laila Al Qubaisi wearing triangular shnaaf on her forehead, a murta‘asha choker, a seytemi coin necklace, a gold hugub (belt),

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11.12 and kawashy earrings for her wedding. The jewelry in the foreground is a tafrooga

necklace (also known as mareya). 11.13 Photograph by Mariam Al Qubaisi,

2017 204 11.14 A Bahraini bride in traditional green thobe wearing a hama with tallat on her head,

sweet basil, jasmine, and rose buds in her 11.15 plaited hair, a murta‘asha choker, and a

long murtahish necklace ending in a crescent element. Courtesy of The National Museum of Bahrain 207

Wedding murta‘asha. Photograph by Zainab Al Hosani, 2016 208

Huyul bu showg (also known as banjeri), in a single and double row of spikes. Photograph by Fatima Al Shehhi, 2018 208 Pearls belonging to Tefla Al Mazrouie’s family, acquired from Qatar in the 1980s. Photograph by Ayesha AlMarrar, 2017 210

Notes on Contributors

Ileana Baird

is an Assistant Professor of English at Zayed University, U.A.E. She holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from University of Virginia, U.S.A. Her areas of interest include eighteenth-century British literature, visual and material culture, Orientalism, and digital humanities. She is the editor of Data Visualization in Enlightenment Literature and Culture (Palgrave, 2020) and Eighteenth-Century Social Networks: Clubs, Literary Salons, Textual Coteries (CSP, 2014), co-editor of Eighteenth-Century Thing Theory in a Global Context: From Consumerism to Celebrity Culture (Ashgate, 2014; Routledge, 2018), and author of articles on Alexander Pope and his circle.

Marie-Claire Bakker

is an ethnographer with a special interest in material culture. She received a Master of Philosophy in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography from the University of Oxford, UK, and an MA in Arabic Language and Literature from Edinburgh University, UK. Besides teaching in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University, she consults as an area specialist in the material culture of the region, and for the last 25 years has been researching the dynamics of social change through dress and jewelry in the Arabian Peninsula.

Joseph Donica is an Assistant Professor of English at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, U.S.A. He is a contributor to the Sage Encyclopedia of War and the website American Muslims: History, Culture, and Politics. His latest articles include ‘Rethinking Utopia for the Twenty-First Century: The Good Life after Occupy and the Arab Spring,’ and “Negative Memory after Katrina: The Persistence of Memoir.’ He is currently writing a monograph entitled Inequality’s Subjects: Neoliberalism Subjectivity after the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall

Street. He serves on the Executive Board of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association.

Holly Edwards

is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at Williams College, U.S.A. She holds a PhD in the History of Islamic Art from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. Her publications encompass a broad array of topics, including Afghan photography and visual culture, shrine architecture in the Indus Valley, and photojournalism. She has curated several exhibitions, among them Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: American Orientalism 1870-1930 at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Yannis Hadjinicolaou

is a Research Associate at University of Hamburg, Germany, where he is working on a project titled Bilderfahrzeuge: Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology. He held a Research Fellowship in the Humanities at the New York University-Abu Dhabi and lectureships at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and University of Basel, Switzerland. He earned his PhD from Freie Universitat Berlin with a thesis recently published in English under the title Thinking Bodies, Shaping Hands: Handeling in Art and Art Theory of the Rembrandtists (Brill, 2019). Since 2017 he has been leading the network Synagonism in the Visual Arts funded by the German Research Foundation.

Victoria Penziner Hightower is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Georgia, U.S.A. She has published articles on the history and heritage of pearling in the United Arab Emirates and has co-edited a volume entitled Representing the Nation: Heritage, Museums, National Narratives, and Identity in the Arab Gulf States (Routledge, 2016). Recent articles

XIV include “Purposeful Ambiguity: The Pearl Trade and Heritage Construction in the United Arab Emirates,” in Cultural Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula, and “Pearling and Political Power in the Trucial States, 1850-1950: Debt, Taxes, and Politics,” in the Journal of Arabian Studies.

Jennie MacDonald

received her PhD in literary studies at the University of Denver, U.S.A. Her research interests concern eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic literature, theater studies, and visual and material culture. Her recent publications include an article on Elizabeth Inchbald’s play, Every One Has His Fault, in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research, and a book chapter on James M. Cain’s Snyder-Gray novels, in New Perspectives on Detective Fiction: Mystery Magnified. An article on the Victorian toy theater and an edited collection of Gothic selections from The Lady’s Monthly Museum, a Regency-era women’s magazine, are forthcoming.

Kara McKeown

holds an MA in Museum Studies from University of Leicester, UK, and is currently teaching in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University. Her research interests include the interface between language-teaching pedagogy and the teaching of art and design, the collection and use of oral history in the U.A.E. museums, and jewelry as an indicator of change in the Emirati society. Her most recent article, co-authored with Sabrina DeTurk, is entitled “Encounters with Interactive Technologies in U.A.E. Museums,” and was published in Appropriate Museology, Appropriate Language: Essays on Translation and Communication in the Museum.

Rana Al-Ogayyel is a fine artist and Lecturer in the College of Art and Design at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, K.S.A. and a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at the Royal College of Art in London, UK. She has been a practicing artist since 2004 and has

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS extensive experience in fine arts and arts education. Her research interests include the study of Bedouin tent dividers as multi-layered materials for experimentation and al-Sadu weaving as a cultural practice that allows to explore ideas of domestic space and division in relation to women’s identity.

Ceyda Oskay

is a practicing artist, researcher, and development consultant. She holds an MA in Middle East Studies from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and an MA in Fine Arts from The Royal College of Art, London, UK. She has carried out several projects for Al-Sadu House in Kuwait, including curating the 2015-2016 exhibition and contemporary art residency Sadu Art and Design Initiative (SADI), and organized workshops related to reinterpreting al-Sadu design for the Nuqat Conference in Kuwait.

Chrysavgi Papagianni

is an Assistant Professor of English at Zayed University, U.A.E. She holds a PhD in 2oth-Century American Film and Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY), U.S.A. Her research focuses on women’s literature and cinema, with a special interest in issues of memory and identity. Her article, “The Salvation of Emirati Memory in Nujoom Alghanem’s Hamama,” has been recently published in the Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and she is currently working on an essay on Emirati women filmmakers to be published in The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication (forthcoming 2020 by Willey-Blackwell.) She also serves as a regular book reviewer for the European Journal of American Studies.

James Redman is a cultural anthropologist at Zayed University, U.A.E. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Utah, U.S.A. His past research examined the role of social connections and informality in state structures in providing a means for accessing bureaucratic resources in Kuwait. Presently,

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS his projects are primarily located in Oman and focus on issues of oral and textual knowledge. Particularly, he is concerned with the creation, production, consumption, and circulation of texts in predominantly oral and non-literate settings.

Eran Segal

is a researcher at the Ezri Center for Iran & Gulf Studies, University of Haifa, Israel. He teaches in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at University of Haifa and at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research interests include the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf politics, tribalism, and economic history. He has published several articles and book chapters on the history, politics, and society of the Arabian Gulf States.

Hülya Yağcıoğlu is an Assistant Professor of English at Zayed University, U.A.E. She has earned her PhD in English Literature from Boğaziçi University, Turkey. Her research areas are comparative literature, cultural studies, and modern Turkish and American fiction. Recent articles include “Reifying Innocence: Material Contexts of Love in The Age of Innocence and The Museum of Innocence, published in

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The Materiality of Love: Essays on Affection and Cultural Practice, and “Bridging the Gap between People and Things: The Politics and Poetics of Collecting in Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence,” in Orhan Pamuk: Critical Essays on a Novelist between Worlds.

William Gerard Zimmerle

is a Visiting Professor in the Division of Arts and Humanities at the New York University-Abu Dhabi and an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of Humanities at Fairleigh Dickinson University, U.S.A. He holds a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MDiv in Comparative Religions and Semitic Languages from Harvard University. His research interests include Pre-Islamic and Islamic material culture of the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa, archaeology and history of the Middle East and Arabia, anthropology of scent and ritual studies, and 3D imaging of material culture for heritage preservation. He is the Director of the Dhofar Ethnography Preservation Project: Documenting the Cuboid Incense Burner in the Sultanate of Oman and Dhofar Rock Art and Inscriptions Project: A Digital Humanities Initiative in the Sultanate.

Introduction

Complex Legacies: Materiality, Memory, and Myth in the

Arabian Peninsula

Ileana Baird

This casket India’s glowing gems unlocks, And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. The Rape of the Lock

ALEXANDER POPE,

(1712-1714/15)

All around the world national and communal identities are increasingly being defined through new readings of their history, and that history is frequently anchored in things.

NEIL MACGREGOR, A History of the World in 100 Objects (2010)

In a suggestive passage, Wilfred Thesiger, or, as his Arab friends affectionately called him, Mubarak bin London, described his encounter with the people of the Empty Quarter in the following terms:

“The northern Arabs had no traditions of civilization behind them. To arrange three stones as a fireplace on which to set a pot was the only architecture that many of them required. They lived in black tents in the desert, or in bare rooms devoid of furnishings in villages and towns. They had no taste nor inclination for refinements. Most of them demanded only the bare necessities of life, enough food and drink to keep them alive, clothes to cover their nakedness, some form of shelter

1 Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands (London: Longmans, 1959; Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 1994), 88. Citations refer to the Motivate Publishing edition.

2 Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, ed. NJ. Dawood, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967), 118-19. Interestingly, Ibn Khaldin’s account of the desert Bedouins’ material life is very similar to Thesiger’s: “the inhabitants of the desert from the sun and wind, weapons, a few pots, rugs, water-skins, and their saddlery. It was a life which produced much that was noble, nothing that was gracious.”!

This blunt description of the material life of the Arabian Peninsula about 1946-1947, the time when Thesiger crossed the Empty Quarter in the company of his Bedouin guides, shows the place as devoid of any “architecture,” “furnishings,” or “refinements’—material references seen here, in a similar way to Ibn Khaldiin’s much earlier’s account in The Muqaddimah, as signs of “civilization.”? The detailed list of objects that fill the life of the desert Arabs—pots, rugs, water-skin, saddlery, weapons, tents—depicts a lifestyle of extreme simplicity, where food, drink, garments, and shelter are all that is needed for physical survival in the harsh desert environment. Albeit reductionist, this description is not inaccurate: Thesiger experienced the desert firsthand and he recorded his impressions not only in writing but also visually, in the over 38,000 photographs currently held at the Pitt River Museum in Oxford. However, this depiction is strangely at odds with other accounts of Arabia as a place of breathtaking beauty and magic. Here is a recollection of the same place by Richard F. Burton, nineteenth-century traveler to adopt the natural manner of making a living, namely, agriculture and animal husbandry. They restrict themselves to the necessary in food, clothing, and mode of dwelling, and to the other necessary conditions and customs. They do not possess conveniences and luxuries. They use tents of hair and wool, or houses of wood, or of clay and stone, which are not furnished (elaborately). The purpose is to have shade and shelter, and nothing beyond that” (92).