THIS ISSUE: CONTEMPORARY ART The visual language of dissent

Volume 11 - Number 1December 2014 – January 2015

£4

THIS ISSUETHIS ISSUE:: CONTEMPORARY ART CONTEMPORARY ART ●● The visual language of dissent The visual language of dissent ●● Un-representable narratives and contemporary amnesia Un-representable narratives and contemporary amnesia ●● Ways of seeing Ways of seeing ● ● Arab animated Arab animated cartoons, then and now cartoons, then and now ●● Photo competition results Photo competition results ●● PLUSPLUS Reviews and events in LondonReviews and events in London

About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI)Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations.

With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its programme of activities.

Mission Statement:Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today.

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Editorial BoardProfessor Nadje Al-Ali

SOAS

Dr Hadi EnayatAKU

Ms Narguess FarzadSOAS

Mrs Nevsal HughesAssociation of European Journalists

Dr George Joff éCambridge University

Mr Barnaby Rogerson

Ms Sarah SearightBritish Foundation for the Study

of Arabia

Dr Kathryn Spellman-PootsAKU and LMEI

Dr Sarah StewartSOAS

Mrs Ionis Th ompsonSaudi-British Society and BFSA

Dr Shelagh WeirSOAS

Professor Sami ZubaidaBirkbeck College

Coordinating EditorMegan Wang

ListingsVincenzo Paci

DesignerShahla Geramipour

Th e Middle East in London is published fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS

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University of LondonMBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell

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Volume 11 - Number 1December 2014 –

January 2015

Samira Alikhanzadeh, Untitled, 2011

Volume 11 - Number 1December 2014 – January 2015

£4

De

THIS ISSUETHIS ISSUE:: CONTEMPORARY ART CONTEMPORARY ART ●● The visual language of dissent The visual language of dissent ●● Un-representable narratives and contemporary amnesia Un-representable narratives and contemporary amnesia ●● Ways of seeing Ways of seeing ● ● Arab animated Arab animated cartoons, then and now cartoons, then and now ●● Photo competition results Photo competition results ●● PLUSPLUS Reviews Reviews and and events in Londonevents in London

December 2014 – January 2015 The Middle East in London 3

LMEI Board of TrusteesProfessor Paul Webley (Chair)

Director, SOAS

Professor Richard Black, SOAS

Dr John CurtisIran Heritage Foundation

Sir Vincent Fean

Professor Ben Fortna, SOAS

Mr Alan Jenkins

Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS

Dr Dina Matar, SOAS

Dr Barbara ZollnerBirkbeck College

LMEI Advisory CouncilLady Barbara Judge (Chair)

Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel HaleemNear and Middle East Department, SOAS

Mr Stephen BallKPMG

H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCOAmbassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait

Mrs Haifa Al KaylaniArab International Women’s Forum

Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al KhalifaPresident, University College of Bahrain

Professor Tony AllanKing’s College and SOAS

Dr Alanoud AlsharekhSenior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS

Mr Farad AzimaNetScientifi c Plc

Dr Noel BrehonyMENAS Associates Ltd.

Professor Magdy Ishak HannaBritish Egyptian Society

HE Mr Mazen Kemal HomoudAmbassador, Embassy of the Hashemite

Kingdom of Jordan

Founding Patron and Donor of the LMEI

Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al JaberMBI Al Jaber Foundation

4 EDITORIAL

5INSIGHTTh e visual language of dissentMegan Wang

7CONTEMPORARY ARTUn-representable narratives and contemporary amnesia: Soheila SokhanvariJanet Rady and Lisa Pollman

9Ways of seeing: traces of the disappeared Nadje Al-Ali

11Drawing politics: Arab animated cartoons, then and nowOmar Sayfo

13Photo competition results

15REVIEWSEXHIBITIONSPoetry & exile Venetia Porter

17BOOKSTh e Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Spring and BeyondCharles Tripp

18God’s Zoo: Artists, Exiles, LondonersBarnaby Rogerson

20Practising Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gift s and Material Culture in the Medieval Islamic WorldHugh Kennedy

21BOOKS IN BRIEF

23PROFILEAnna Contadini

24Mostafa Dashti

25EVENTS IN LONDON

Contents

4 The Middle East in London December 2014 – January 2015

EDITORIALEDITORIAL

Reza Derakshani, Shirin & Khosrow, 2009. Oil on canvas. 150 x 180cm

© R

eza Derakshani

London is renowned for being a global centre for cultural production and commerce, and Middle Eastern artists,

living in the diaspora and from the region itself, have long been making the most of its creative industries. Th e articles in this issue present a few of these artists and explore some of the complex sources that lie behind their cultural productions. Exile and dislocation, East–West connections and misunderstandings, and turbulent politics, are to name a few examples of conditions that continue to motivate and shape the creative process.

Venetia Porter, surveying the exhibition Poetry & exile at the British Museum, highlights a number of artists and explains how painful personal stories, poetry, and the histories of the region are drawn upon in various and complex ways in their work. Th e ‘in-betweenness’ of the exile condition is oft en described as an unrestricted space for artists to negotiate and express emotions and aspirations. Acknowledging the ambivalence of living in exile, Janet Rady and Lisa Pollman’s piece on the Iranian visual artist Soheila Sokhanvari stresses the freedom that can be gained as an exilic

artist. Using crude oil and humorous narratives, Sokhanvari’s provocative work engages with serious issues such as national identity, the environment and global politics.

Th e Iraqi artist, Jananne Al-Ani, in conversation with Nadje Al-Ali, looks critically at the way people look at images. Th rough her work on the body she confronts clichéd representations of veiled women and attempts to alter the relationship between the viewer and the viewed. Her most recent works endeavour to make connections between Middle Eastern and American landscapes, both literally and metaphorically. Investigating East–West connections is also a central theme in this issue’s Profi le piece, featuring Anna Contadini, Professor of the History of Islamic Art. Indeed, her research concentrates on the exchanges and interpretations of Middle Eastern and European arts across cultural boundaries.

In a diff erent vein, Omar Sayfo examines the evolution of Arab animation and the ongoing attempts for countries to provide alternatives to Walt Disney and other global animation giants. Drawing on examples

throughout the region, Sayfo demonstrates how animation production has become integrated into national policies and used to propagate political agendas.

Conversely, this issue also explores how ordinary people, from all walks of life, have been imaginatively utilising a wide range of aesthetics – music, poetry, humour and even everyday objects – as powerful tools to rally people together, challenge authority and make demands for change. Drawing from examples in Turkey, Libya and Tunisia, Megan Wang’s Insight piece demonstrates how objects such gas masks, playing cards, and national fl ags have been re-appropriated as subversive symbols by activists to disrupt the status quo. Charles Tripp’s review of the book Th e Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Spring and Beyond highlights how images, performances, and caricatures become important oppositional spaces for thinking against power and authority.

Finally, it is fi tting to announce in this issue the winners of the 2014 MEL photo competition. Many congratulations!

Kathryn Spellman-Poots, Nadje Al-Ali, MEL Editorial Board

Dear ReaderDear Reader


INSIGHTINSIGHT

How to make a gas mask? You will need: a marker, a large plastic bottle, a box cutter, a length of foam or

some soft fabric, a surgical mask and some glue. Hold the bottle up to your face and, using the marker, draw a U-shape. Cut off the bottom of the bottle using your box cutter and then cut out the U-shape. Glue the foam around the cut edges to protect your face. Stuff a surgical mask in the top of the bottle and use the elastics to secure the mask to your face. Remember to carry vinegar to soak the surgical mask prior to donning your homemade gas mask (Disobedient Objects, V&A Museum). Demonstrators created these makeshift gas masks during the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul. Since then they have been spotted as far away as Caracas, Venezuela, and several instructional graphics detailing their construction can be found with a quick Google search.

Everyday objects, when employed creatively, can become powerful weapons of subversion – practically and symbolically. According to Crispin Sartwell ‘all politics is aesthetic; at their heart political ideologies, systems and constitutions are aesthetic systems, multimedia artistic environments’ (Political Aesthetics, 2010). Th e political aesthetics of grassroots social movements work to further their aims via a visual language that targets the problem and inspires people to act. Aside from Gezi Park’s makeshift gas masks, demonstrators in Syria modifi ed the bottoms of paper bags, allowing them to serve as graffi ti stencils. Th e repurposing of these objects acts as a compelling visual statement: paper bags and plastic bottles are not items that one would traditionally use to oppose a government with a police force and army that have a host of weapons at their disposal – tear gas, pepper spray, riot shields, guns. Th e

mundane, non-violent and everyday nature of these repurposed, ‘disobedient objects’ is empowering: every individual has access to them and in them lies the means for opposition. Moreover, these objects have symbolic weight; they serve to make the violence and repression they were created to guard against appear ridiculous in scale. If all an individual has to protect himself is a plastic bottle and some vinegar, deploying tear gas and using riot shields seems like textbook overkill.

A key component of the strength of these political aesthetics lies in their ability to subvert established defi nitions and discourses and to disrupt the status quo. Generally, protest artwork and other paraphernalia, by their very nature, are acts of subversion and mockery – they are not (necessarily) pieces of fi ne art produced by trained artists with access to quality materials and high-tech studios, and they are unlikely to be products designed and mass produced in factories. Instead they tend to be created under conditions of constraint and duress; access to resources

Everyday objects, when employed creatively, can become powerful weapons of subversion – practically and symbolically

The visual The visual language language of dissentof dissent

Megan Wang talks about the aesthetics of protest, drawing on the creative works of social movements from the Middle East to the US

Yemeni woman in traditional dress in Change Square with the Yemeni fl ag drawn on her hand and ‘no immunity for traitors’ written on her palm. Photograph by Z. Alkulaibi. The photo appears in The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Spring and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2014)


is limited and, in some contexts, exposure could very well mean imprisonment. Th us, their manufacturing is not an endeavour of privileged elites; it is a product of ‘the people’ for ‘the people’. Yet even with such constraints these pieces are not haphazardly chosen; they are thoughtful, aesthetic responses to changing circumstances that aim to embody the spirit and ethos of the movements they represent.

Subversion can take on other, more direct forms as well. In 2003 when the US invaded Iraq, the US military created a set of Personality Identifi cation playing cards which contained the names, faces, addresses and, sometimes, job titles of the most-wanted individuals in Iraq. In response, Noel Douglas designed the Regime Change Begins at Home playing cards during the height of the Anti-War Movement, depicting the ‘most unwanted’ members of the US government described as warmongers and profi teers. Th e cards are humorous: they contain unfl attering images of the individuals, one of their more colourful quotes and, for George W. Bush, a nickname whose spelling seems to mock his Texas accent – ‘Dubya’.

Defacing currency, images of political leaders or appropriating national fl ags are other examples of this visual language of dissent. Th ese objects are oft en thought of as national symbols: they are created, owned or generally mobilised by the government. Painting over the national fl ag or drawing on a country’s currency is a direct aesthetic assault on government power and authority.

Th us, in Libya we see examples of Qaddafi ’s face being blacked out on the Libyan dinar and graffi ti which eff eminises him. In Yemen and Tunisia protestors painted their fl ag’s colours on their bodies, sometimes alongside powerful statements explicitly expressing their grievances and demands.

Social movements and activism are dynamic processes that have the power to transform individuals, processes in which the idea of ‘the people’ is constantly being renegotiated and redefi ned via a visual language – be it the site of the protest, graffi ti, theatre, leafl et, prop or tool (Th e Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Spring and Beyond, AKU-ISMC). Th us, donning a makeshift gas mask alters the demonstrator’s appearance, signifying his or her commitment to action. Th e gas mask has improved his/her ability to withstand tear gas, altering the power dynamic between the demonstrator and the authorities. Th ose authorities can no longer use tear gas as eff ectively as a crowd-control tactic. Th e hidden stencils allow individuals to move freely and ‘tag’ strategic locations with the mark of the resistance, disseminating their message widely and mocking the power’s inability to catch them. Th e Regime Change Begins at Home playing cards use humour to poke fun at established offi cials, rendering the

individuals depicted less powerful and more human. Th ey are transformed from sources of authority into sources of amusement. While blacking out Qaddafi ’s face on the Libyan dinar may seem petty, the symbolic resonance cannot be denied: with one action he has been rendered not only blind, but faceless.

While varied in form and function, objects created and employed by protest movements around the globe embody a political aesthetic, oft en taking the form of a visual language of dissent. Th ey draw inspiration from the opposition and an existing repertoire of protest, of iconic imagery and symbolism, which is then adapted to the local vernacular. Visuals have always provided a means for getting one’s message across, but technological innovation has allowed for their cheap, eff ortless and near immediate dissemination to massive audiences, multiplying their value. In the context of grassroots movements, these aesthetic objects or creations aid in renegotiating and reimagining the status quo, subverting traditional hierarchies by empowering ‘the people’. More importantly, though, they demonstrate that all that is required to activate the latent aesthetic power of the seemingly mundane is a mixture of ingenuity and necessity.

Th is article was informed by the following exhibitions: Disobedient Objects at the V&A Museum in the Porter Gallery until 1 February 2015; Th e Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Spring and Beyond at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) and Goldsmiths College, University of London ended 6 and 23 November 2014 respectively.

Megan Wang is the Coordinating Editor for Th e Middle East in London. She has a Master’s degree in Muslim Cultures from AKU-ISMC

In the context of grassroots movements, aesthetic objects or creations aid in renegotiating and reimagining the status quo, subverting traditional hierarchies by empowering ‘the people’

Eff eminising Qaddafi , Tripoli, Libya (February 2012). Photograph by Igor Cherstich, Anthropology Department, University College London


Soheila Sokhanvari, Shahrzad the Storyteller, 2013. Mixed media on vellum. 30.5 X 23cm

CONTEMPORARY ARTCONTEMPORARY ART

Hailing from Iran, visual artist Soheila Sokhanvari creates pieces that boldly take on issues such as

national identity and political events that shape contemporary life in the 21st century with bizarre, humorous and mysterious narratives. She deft ly works with a variety of visual media and materials designed to encourage audience participation and refl ection. Some of her series include reworked passports, contemporised miniature paintings, delicate crude oil works, thought-provoking installations and carpet paintings.

Sokhanvari was born in Shiraz, the birthplace of poets Hafez and Saadi. In the so-called ‘City of Gardens’, Sokhanvari learned the intricacies of miniature painting alongside her father, who was a self-taught miniature artist, model and fashion designer. Instead of drawing in colouring books, Sokhanvari ground pigments, mixed colours and painted rudimentary designs as a child. It was during this time that Sokhanvari was introduced to egg tempera technique, a process that fascinates her to this day and is represented in a large body of her work.

Sokhanvari, who earned her fi rst degree in Biochemistry, was naturally drawn to the

alchemy behind grinding and mixing her own colours and uses precious materials such as crude oil, lapis lazuli, malachite and 22ct gold in her pieces in addition to working with egg tempera. For her ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ series, she harnesses these costly materials to create sublime geometric tessellations oft en represented in traditional Middle Eastern art and architecture.

Sokhanvari enjoys shopping for pigments at an establishment based in Venice that has served artists for hundreds of years. For the artist, the timelessness of egg tempera acts as a perfect foil for the fast-paced, troubled present: ‘Like Grayson Perry, I am interested in using an ancient technique that is associated with craft , decoration and a medieval language to speak about contemporary issues. Th ere is something very performative with egg tempera because one becomes aware of the laborious process, which goes against our global fast-consuming culture.’

An unusual material used by Sokhanvari is crude oil, a major export product of Iran, which is surprisingly well suited as

a medium. Sokhanvari fi rst included it in her artwork in 2009 when she began her studies at Goldsmiths College. Her crude oil paintings depict a gentleness and timeless intimacy, much like sepia-tone photographs: ‘Crude oil is a very versatile material. It is as stable and permanent as ink (being carbon based) and dries instantly unlike oil. It is plastic and moody: how it behaves depends upon temperature and humidity and I never know how a drawing will turn out. I always say when we fi rst met we were enemies but now we are friends.’

Sokhanvari fi nds the medium suitable due to its political, economic and environmental narrative and employs it for its veiled political value. To some in the Middle East, crude oil is viewed as both a blessing and a curse: a commodity that has built dynasties and made or broken apart families, peoples and countries.

In a nod to tradition, Sokhanvari presents her work on calf vellum, a medieval staple for visual artists but also a chilling symbol of death and sacrifi ce. Referencing the calf as the sacrifi cial animal in the Abrahamic

Un-representable Un-representable narratives and narratives and contemporary contemporary amnesia: Soheila amnesia: Soheila SokhanvariSokhanvari

Janet Rady and Lisa Pollman discuss the life and works of multimedia artist Soheila Sokhanvari

Soheila Sokhanvari does not consider herself strictly Persian but a ‘cultural collage’

© Soheila Sokhanvari


Each piece she completes is a chance to look at a particular event with completely fresh eyes

religions, she links this to the Iranian ideological concept of martyrdom, thereby creating a notional palimpsest of the stories of the many exiled Iranians like herself.

Although originally from the region, she does not consider herself strictly Persian but a ‘cultural collage’ and has spent most of her life abroad aft er leaving Iran to attend school in the UK at the age of ten. Th e idea of an artist living in exile and one who has gained particular freedoms and advantages (as well as facing challenges) is not lost on Sokhanvari. ‘Exile’, she says, ‘can be a creative space that allows a critical discourse at the juncture of opposing cultures; it gives a voice and a distance that may not be possible from within the homeland… I would like to stress that many exiles become an insider-outsider, which means that you are neither, but you can reinvent yourself as an exile.’

Sokhanvari seeks to connect her work with the audience, with a narrative that is oft en cleverly hidden in the background, to be patiently discovered and savoured. Modern-day traumas that have become woven into the very fabric of society yet forgotten are fl eshed out and presented in a completely diff erent format, oft en through the vehicle of humour or absurdity: ‘Humour brings out the absurdity of these events and makes it easier to deal with. My passport installations function fi rstly as found portraits that sit within the context of personal as well as national identity. It deals with experiences of an individual within a collective narrative of a nation; each stamp is a humorous hint at the politics of that country. One’s passport defi nes how they are treated and judged.’

An important component of Sokhanvari’s narrative are the titles of each work. Not content with labelling her works ‘untitled’, titles are sometimes chosen before a piece even begins. For her fi nal year piece at Goldsmiths in 2011, her sculpture Moje Sabz was an installation with an antique taxidermy horse astride a bright blue orb. Th e meaning behind that provocative sculpture? Iran’s Green Movement of 2009. An important component of this work was to provide an opportunity for the audience to connect with the piece by

doing their own research at the installation (via instructions opposite the artwork) and then interact with others at the installation. She explains, ‘When I was at Goldsmiths I was researching how to represent the un-representable. I studied about Joan Miró and how he titled his “abstract” paintings aft er Spanish Civil War events and how the “title” became a vehicle for the narrative or the message. He was a painter [who depicted history] very much like Goya but in a diff erent way… It was based on the above-mentioned idea of an object that can stand in for something else.’

For Sokhanvari, each piece she completes is a chance to look at a particular event with completely fresh eyes. Th e challenge, then, is to unwaveringly look at an event and ‘bring it back on the table’ for discussion. With the complexities and challenges of global politics, the economy and the environment,

she should have more than enough material to choose from.

Sokhanvari earned a second Bachelor’s degree (Fine Art) from the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (2005), a PgDip (Fine Art) from the Chelsea College of Art and Design (2006) and a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2011). She has been long listed for the Global Art Aff airs Foundation’s Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2015 and also has a solo show scheduled in October 2015 at the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London.

Janet Rady runs Janet Rady Fine Art, a contemporary Middle Eastern art gallery based in London. See www.janetradyfi neart.com; Lisa Pollman specialises in writing about Asian and Middle Eastern artists who boldly and unapologetically break new ground with subject matter or techniques. See more of her work at www.lisapollman.com

© Soheila Sokhanvari

Soheila Sokhanvari, Holy Trinity. Iranian crude oil on paper. 21 X 29.5cm



Jananne Al-Ani, born in Kirkuk, Iraq, is a multi-media artist with a longstanding interest in the power of testimony and

the documentary tradition as well as the history of Orientalist representation of the Middle East. Nadje Al-Ali interviewed Jananne Al-Ani in her south London home.

Your work appears to have changed quite dramatically over the years. Is there a main thread or motivation that inspires your artwork?

I am interested in how we look at images and the way we understand them. How might we look at a 19th-century photograph of a Middle Eastern woman in a costume standing in a studio? How was that image

read when it was made, and how do we read it now? What happens to an image when it is fi ltered through a diff erent lens once it is in circulation?

Photography is so malleable and it works in so many diff erent spheres: anthropology, medicine, art. It is powerful precisely because we think we are looking at something real More specifi cally, I have been interested in the relationship between reality and fantasy when looking at historic and contemporary photographs of the Middle East.

In the 1990s, I made a number of works that were video installations and featured women talking. Th e idea of the ‘talking head’ comes from documentary fi lmmaking, and it relates to the

photographic portrait: the women were shot in the studio against a neutral backdrop, the camera at a fi xed angle. Th e fi lms appear to be personal and intimate; there is a narrative implied in these works. But what I was really interested in was exploring how to use that format to undermine what is expected from a documentary. What happens when we interview someone for 2 hours and what ends up in the fi lm is a 2-minute clip? It is not necessarily an accurate account of what has been said. Th e voice of the protagonist is highly modifi ed. I was thinking a lot about the controlling hand of the editor or the fi lmmaker, in terms of representation.

How do you feel about people interpreting your work to be about identity, or autobiographical rather than problematising representation?

As artists we put our work out in the world

Ways of seeing: Ways of seeing: traces of the traces of the disappeareddisappeared

Nadje Al-Ali speaks to Jananne Al-Ani about the inspiration behind her artwork and the diff erence between looking and seeing

As artists we put our work out in the world and we cannot control its reception. Sadly, most people don’t look very carefully

Jananne Al-Ani, A Loving Man, 1996/9. 15 Minutes. Five channel video installation. Courtesy of the artist


and we cannot control its reception. Sadly, most people don’t look very carefully, and that is part of what I am trying to address. Th ere is a diff erence between looking and seeing. Th e photographic work I made in the 1990s, which focused on the veil, has oft en been interpreted to be about identity. But for me, the whole point of engaging with the veil was to disrupt its iconography. I wanted to confront the clichés of veiled women being represented either as highly sexualised and exoticised or as downtrodden and oppressed. I discovered the book Th e Colonial Harem in which the French-Algerian theorist Malek Alloula examined postcards of Algerian women produced during the French occupation. He compared the gaze of the veiled woman with that of the photographer.

I became interested in the challenge of how to represent this radical interpretation of the gaze by creating a third space in which to consider the relationship between the viewer and the viewed. In my photographs I attempted to alter this relationship so that the veiled woman could occupy an empowered position, one in which she could see without being seen.

Of course all this changed aft er 9/11 and the rise of militant Islam. Images of veiled women actively engaged in combat have fed a new and monstrous myth about the veil in which the bodies of Muslim women are something to be feared.

Can you tell us about your more recent body of work Th e Aesthetics of Disappearance: A Land Without People?

Th e link between looking and power remains a preoccupation in my recent work. Covering and uncovering the body was at

the centre of the work I made about the veil and is also very much at the heart of my photographs and video installations based on remote, long-distance aerial footage of the Middle Eastern landscape and the deserts of the American Southwest.

In the words of Paul Virilio, the 1991 Gulf War was the fi rst ‘total electronic war’ broadcast live via satellite and providing the world with an aerial view of the confl ict that was to become the abiding image of modern warfare. For me, the most striking eff ect of this cartographic perspective was the ‘disappearing’ civilian populations on the ground which echoed the 19th-century Orientalist fantasy of the desert as an empty, unoccupied space.

In 2007 I began to produce a new body of photographic and moving image work, which explores the disappearance of the body in a range of contested and highly charged landscapes by examining what happens to the evidence of violence and how it aff ects our understanding of the oft en-beautiful landscapes into which the bodies of victims disappear.

In recent years, the increased sophistication of drones became the new focus in terms of advances in military technology. However, I wanted to go back to the early 20th century and investigate the circumstances that fi rst brought the technologies of photography and fl ight together. In developing the work I visited a range of archives and found some of the earliest known aerial reconnaissance

photographs. One of the most signifi cant outcomes of this research was the revelation that the discipline of aerial archaeology had developed as a direct result of aerial operations carried out in the course of the First and Second World Wars. Pilots fl ying military sorties were discovering previously unknown archaeological sites. Such ‘shadow sites’ appeared only at sunrise and sunset, when lengthening shadows made visible otherwise unseen traces on the ground.

Th e Aesthetics project includes the large-scale fi lms Shadow Sites I and Shadow Sites II, which were both shot from the air in the Middle East. More recently I completed Groundworks: fi ve small fi lms that focus on the American Southwest. Together they link signs of ancient and contemporary activities in the landscape and pull the American and Middle Eastern territories closer together, both literally and metaphorically. For me, part of the appeal of using the dual technologies of fl ight and photography lay in the possibility of the landscape itself becoming the bearer of particularly resilient and recurring memories by exposing signs on the surface, not only of loss but also of survival.

Stills from the fi lm Shadow Sites II will be on display in the exhibition Shangri La: Imagined Cities at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery until 28 December. Th e show is curated by Rijin Sahakian, director of Sada, a not-for-profi t project supporting new and emerging arts practices in Iraq through education initiatives and public programs (http://sadairaq.org)

Nadje Al-Ali is a member of the Editorial Board and a Professor of Gender Studies at SOAS

Part of the appeal of using the dual technologies of fl ight and photography lay in the possibility of the landscape itself becoming

the bearer of particularly resilient and recurring memories

Jananne Al-Ani, still from Shadow Sites II, 2011. Single channel digital video. Courtesy of the artist and Abraaj Capital Art Prize



Since their early emergence in the 1930s, Arab animated productions have been largely driven by the desire to create

culturally relevant works and to provide an alternative to the animations of global giants like Walt Disney, widely popular amongst Arab audiences. As producing celluloid and, later, computer-generated (CGI) animation was an expensive and labour-intensive process, it remained the privilege of elites well integrated into national political and media hierarchies. As such, animation production in the Arab world became a legitimate target of well-defi ned cultural policies and, also, of political propaganda.

Th e fi rst short celluloid fi lms were produced in the workshop of the Frenkel Brothers, the three sons of Russian-Jewish immigrants to Alexandria. By the late 1930s, the character of Mish Mish Eff endi – a funny soul who wore a tarbush and was oft en embroiled in all sorts of adventures with his friend, Fayyoumi, and Bahia, his Betty Boop-like lover – gained popularity in Egyptian cinemas. During World War II,

the Ministry of War sponsored a 15-minute propagandistic episode aimed at supporting the loan the Egyptian government provided to the army. In March 1940, Mish Mish Eff endi donned a military uniform and marched across the screen, chanting patriotic slogans and defeating the enemy.

Animation as a tool for war propaganda was also recognised by Saddam Hussein. Al-Amirah wal-Nahr (Th e Princess and the River) debuted under the shadow of the Iran–Iraq war in 1982. Th e one-million-dollar feature-length production – that also involved Western professionals – told the epic story of the Sumerian princess Sunani, who won the throne due to her courage, honesty and love for her people, and then united the divided people of the Land of the Two Rivers in order to face Eiran, the most evil of enemies.

Th e establishment of the fi rst Arab CGI animation studio in 1988 in Egypt was a milestone in the history of Arab animation. Th e founder, Mona Abul-Nasr, a member of the local academic elite who also had links to the President, gained both fi nancial support and commissions from the Egyptian state-run channel. Th e fi rst series of Bakkar, the Nubian boy, debuted in 1998. Breaking with the habit of Egyptian cinema in representing Nubians as distinct, funny and downright simple-minded people, Bakkar portrayed the Upper Egyptian community as an integral part of the nation, thus strengthening the Egyptian national narrative promoted by Hosni Mubarak.

Th e introduction of 3D computer animation and the proliferation of satellite channels in the mid-1990s resulted in a growth in both the quality and the quantity

Drawing Drawing politics: politics: Arab animated Arab animated cartoons, cartoons, then and nowthen and now

Omar Sayfo traces the development and aims of Arab animated productions from the 1930s to the present

Th e fi lms and series with the largest budgets and widest publicity were oft en vehicles for the mediation

of particular political and religious agendas

'The Princess and the River', an Iraqi fi lm that debuted during the Iran–Iraq war


of productions. However, Arab political and media elites kept direct control over production through funding as well as indirect control through the censorship of television channels. Th e fi lms and series with the largest budgets and widest publicity were oft en vehicles for the mediation of particular political and religious agendas. One case in point is Jordan’s Ben wa Essam (Ben and Izzy) in 2006. Th e 13-episode series was produced by Rubicon, a multimedia production company funded by the King Abdullah II Fund for Development. Th e six-million-dollar series recounts the story of two eleven-year-old boys, one with an American, the other with a Jordanian background. Th e episodes showed how, during their time-travelling adventures, the boys struggled to overcome ingrained stereotypes and learned to be friends, refl ecting the domestic challenges faced by the Jordanian government walking a political tightrope: the government was highly unpopular at the time because of its support for the US war on Iraq in 2003.

Th e Maghreb is no exception in the Arab world’s admiration of animation. Algerian and Tunisian professionals, generally working in local television industries, had been producing short animations since the 1960s. However, due to the lack of funding animation production fell behind that of Egypt. Th e fi rst high-budget animations began to be produced only recently. One of these, the 52-episode series Al-Jazair Tarikh wa Hadarah (Algerian History and Civilisation), which debuted on Algerian television in 2012, is without a doubt the most ambitious animation production ever made in Algeria. Th e fi ft y-million-dinar ($600,000 USD) production was largely funded by the Ministry of Mujahedeen and the Ministry of Culture with the declared aim of advocating the offi cial standpoint in Algerian discourses on local history and national identity. Th e series presented Algeria as an integral part of the Muslim world in the face of Western approaches.

Fuelled by cluster-based development projects funded by oil money, the Gulf became an important centre for Arab animation production. One of the most widely known examples of the booming scene is Freej (Neighbourhood) from Dubai, debuting in 2006. Th e on going

sitcom animation is the brainchild of Mohammed Saeed Harib whose company, Lammtara Pictures, was funded by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid’s Establishment for Young Business Leaders. Th e plot of the show revolves around the life of four elderly ladies living in a traditional neighbourhood in the UAE, challenged by the ever-expanding city and modernising world around them. Little wonder, then, that the show essentially echoed the Emirati elite’s concerns over the loss of identity and cultural heritage (turath), refl ected by the mass migration of the workforce and the rapidly changing cityscape since the 1990s. Within a few years, Freej became a national icon and a part of Emirati popular and even commercial culture. It was probably the success of Freej that inspired young directors from all around the Arab world to create their own sitcom animations, mediating social fi ssures and strengthening national identities at the same time. Th e appreciation of such shows is shown by the fact that they debut during Ramadan, primetime air, when whole families gather around television while eating ift ar, the fast breaking meal.

High-budget Arab animation production is still produced by local elites and presented on television channels. In more recent times, however, modern forms of computer animation and increasing access to the Internet has liberalised both animation production and distribution, off ering

newcomers an opportunity to bypass traditional hierarchies in the media. Since the beginning of the Arab uprisings in 2011, a signifi cant number of individuals and small groups have become involved in producing web-based animated cartoons to mediate local and regional tensions and to express criticism of politicians. Productions such as Jordanian Kharabeesh (Scribbles) and Tunisian Captain Khobza are reaching out to tens of thousands of YouTube viewers, off ering a relatively liberal space for social and political criticism.

Omar Adam Sayfo is a PhD student at Utrecht University and a former visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge. He is currently engaged in research on identity and Arab animation

Modern forms of computer animation and increasing access to the Internet has liberalised both animation production and distribution

Mish Mish Eff endi in 'National Defence', an episode that aimed to drum up support for an Egyptian military bond


Middle East in London photo Middle East in London photo competition results (2014)competition results (2014)

PHOTO COMPETITIONPHOTO COMPETITION

Winning photograph ‘Helawiyat’

We received a large number of excellent entries for MEL’s 2014 photo competition

which we ran this year for a second year running. The high standard of entries – which covered a wide variety

of people, places and themes – made choosing a winner even more of a challenge!

We are very pleased to announce that the winner of the first place prize is Leeor Ohayon for his photograph

‘Helawiyat’. Three additional photographs won commendations.

We are grateful to all who took part, and look forward to new entries in the next round in 2015.

Editorial Board

Leeor Ohayon is a documentary photographer and freelance writer from London (www.leeorohayon.com). His love of photography sprung from his travels, but was really cemented during a yearlong university exchange in Copenhagen. Th ere, he made it his objective to focus his photography on documenting the human experience – good and bad – to emphasise universal aspects that transcend borders and cultures. In this photograph, taken in Marrakesh, he captured the cake-seller; the Moroccan ‘helawiyat’ is a noticeable feature of the urban landscape, and Moroccan cakes and biscuits are some of the most intricate and elaborate sweets. While ‘exotic’ for the average western traveller, the cake-seller’s motive remains universal: trying to earn one’s keep.©

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Sean Duff y recently graduated from SOAS with an MA in Social Anthropology of Development. He took this photo in Jerusalem’s Old City in December 2011 on a trip to visit friends in the West Bank. A large tray of bread being carried as if along the back stairs of a restaurant gives the city walls an arterial sense of movement and is suggestive of daily life within them.

Commendation photograph ‘Life of bread’

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Madeleine McGivern works for Christian Aid as the Middle East Economic and Social Rights Programme Manager. She enjoys taking pictures of people and of places, as well as shots with interesting colours, lines and light. She likes the idea of her photos either making people smile, or telling them about something important – or both. Th is photo is more the latter: it’s a stark reminder of what life was like before the Israeli off ensive in Gaza over the summer. Th e fi shermen of Gaza face a constant struggle to even get out to sea in order to feed themselves and their families. Th e port was heavily damaged during the war. See more at www.madeleinesphotos.yolasite.com.

Commendation photograph ‘Gaza’s fi shermen at work – before’

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Commendation photograph ‘Boys playing on Damascus Gate’

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Akkas Al-Ali is a theatre-maker, freelance writer and doctoral candidate in drama at the University of Exeter researching Palestinian theatre. He is also the co-artistic director of Sandpit Arts (www.sandpitarts.org). Th is photograph was taken earlier this year whilst he was doing fi eldwork in Palestine. Th e gate is the main entrance into the Old City of Jerusalem. It is also a locus of Palestinian and Israeli contestation over space, demonstrated by Nakba Day commemorations and the Jerusalem Day ‘fl ag dance’. Usually guarded by Israeli forces, this photo off ers a glimpse into how Palestinian teenagers routinely challenge the Zionist ordering of space.


The condition of exile, a personally wrenching and dislocating experience, is one that is hard to

imagine unless you have been through it. But out of this pain and uncertainty can come some of the most extraordinary poetry and art. Such works speak not only

of the individual experience that people have gone through at particular moments in time but connect to wider narratives. Th is display from the British Museum’s growing collection of Middle Eastern art looks at some of those personal stories within that wider setting.

At its most graphic and poignant in this exhibition is Refugee (fi g. 1) an artist’s book about worldwide forced migration during the last decades; ten images with childlike embroidery, the delicate gauze pages belie the terror and helplessness of people forced to fl ee their homeland whether from Kosovo, Pakistan, Liberia or Iraq.

Another kind of political exile is evoked in two groups of works which are inspired by the poetry of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Mona Saudi, Jordanian sculptor and painter, added text to drawings she made in the late 1970s to create a gift for the celebrated poet, which she intended to off er him on his birthday in March 2008. Sadly, he died before she was able to give it to him. For her gift Saudi transcribed lines that appealed to her: ‘I am the land and the land is you, this is my song, and this is the emergence of Jesus from the wound, and the wind is green like grass covering the nails and my chains…’ (from Th e Poem of the Land, translated by Atif Alshaer, fi g. 2). Darwish, forced to leave Israel in 1971, spoke movingly about what that meant: ‘When you are in your home, you don’t glorify home: you don’t feel its importance and its intimacy, but when deprived of home, it turns into a need and a lust, as if it is the ultimate aim of the whole journey.’ Darwish, like the Syrian poet Adonis, has inspired many artists

REVIEWS: EXHIBITIONSREVIEWS: EXHIBITIONS

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ubenPoetry & exilePoetry & exileBritish Museum, Gallery 34 Until 1 March 2015

(Above) Figure 1, Ipek Duben, Refugee, 2010. Photoprint and hand-stitching on synthetic silk on Canson paper with metal wire. British Museum 2011,6029.1. Funded by CaMMEA (Contemporary and Modern Middle Eastern Art Acquisitions group)

(Left) Figure 2, Mona Saudi, Homage to Mahmoud Darwish, The Poem of the Land.Silkscreen and watercolour. British Museum 2014, 6025. 5. Funded by CaMMEA


to work with his poetry, and French-Algerian artist Abdallah Benanteur’s Birds Die in Galilee (fi g. 3) is an unbound book, also on display, its individual pages covered with birds and text, the poem, a reference to Darwish’s village of al-Birweh in Galilee destroyed in 1948.

Th ere are other exiles alluded to in the exhibition. A complex combination of references underlie the drawings of Lebanese artist Mireille Kassar (fi g. 4). On one level, she was attracted by the universality of the message of the Conference of the Birds, the Persian poem by Farid al-Din Attar (d. c.1221). Th is tells of birds going on a quest to fi nd who should be their king. Th eir arduous journey led by the hoopoe seeking the legendary Simurgh ends in failure when all they fi nd is a lake in which they see simply their own refl ections. Exile is at the heart of this project because ‘for them [the birds] it was the right time to leave, in the search for something else.’ Th is echoes the artist’s own situation, having left Lebanon to live in France. By entitling these drawings Homage to Giotto, she alludes to the suff ering of St Francis receiving the stigmatas painted by Giotto in this pose (d.1337).

And fi nally, a very diff erent exile is evoked in a set of drawings, Futur Imparfait (fi g. 5) by Turkish artist Canan Tolon. She caught polio as a child in Turkey at a time when the use of the vaccine that has now virtually eradicated the disease was not widespread. Her entire childhood was spent ‘in exile’ in a hospital in France for handicapped

children and the drawings act as a memoir of that period. ‘In this work’, she writes, ‘there are children, there are men, and there are women learning to live… It is not the misfortune of others which fascinates and astonishes but the extraordinary will of a child to live. It is a force inherent in all of us that persists, that makes us want to explore the impossible… that makes us want to dream.’ Th e ‘exile’ she evokes is also

about being exiled from her own body. Not feeling that this body belongs to her as though ‘wearing clothes not your own that seem borrowed.’

To see more images of the works on display visit http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/poetry_and_exile.aspx

Venetia Porter is a Curator at the British Museum of the Islamic collections and Modern Middle Eastern art. In 2012 she curated the exhibition Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam

(Above) Figure 3, Abdallah Benanteur, Birds Die in Galilee, 2001. Ink and monotypes on paper. British Museum 2006,0203.1 Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund

(Far left) Figure 4, Mireille Kassar, Homage to Giotto, 2013. Conference of the Birds series. Ink on handmade paper. British Museum 2014, 6032.1-2. Funded by CaMMEA

(Left) Figure 5, Canan Tolon, Futur Imparfait, 1986-99. Ink and graphite on Mylar. British Museum 2013,6039.1-33 Funded by CaMMEA and SAHA, an association which supports artistic projects connected to contemporary Turkish art

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REVIEWS: BOOKSREVIEWS: BOOKS

The Political Aesthetics of The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest: the Arab Global Protest: the Arab

Spring and BeyondSpring and Beyond

Edited by Pnina Werbner, Martin Webb and Kathryn Spellman-Poots

Reviewed by Charles Tripp

Edinburgh University Press, July 2014, £24.99

When Mohamed Bouazizi set fi re to himself in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid in December

2010, he was doing many things, some of which have yet to be disentangled from the myths that have grown up around this act of self-destruction. However, the image of his burning body, caught on phone cameras and rapidly disseminated through social media had an aesthetic power that helped to mobilise hundreds of thousands of Tunisians. Th e shocking nature of that image jolted people, epitomising the desperation felt by young Tunisians. In doing so, it made them think again about their relationship to power. Ironically, a subsequent image helped to focus much of their anger. Sent out by President Ben Ali’s press offi ce, this showed the president standing by the bedside of the now wholly bandaged fi gure of Bouazizi and, dangerously for Ben Ali, visually linked him and his regime to the act of self-immolation.

Intentional or not, these were powerful aesthetic interventions. Th ey both disrupted the everyday and destabilised the normal self-presentation of the president. Th e images created the space for thinking against power, and, through aff ect, contributed to the mobilisation of Tunisians who unseated their president within a matter of weeks. Although the aesthetic was obviously not the only factor in play, it does serve to remind us how much this plays a part both in the

projection of power, and in strategies of resistance.

Across human history this has been achieved by a wide variety of means, visual, musical and verbal. Visually, the range has been from the spectacularly violent to non-violent spectacles. Th ese have drawn attention to claims and grievances, exploded myths of power and lampooned the powerful with an ingenuity and creativity designed to grab the attention of passers-by, amusing, enraging, inspiring and mobilising them in turn. Th e power of the aesthetic moment lies not simply in its capacity to direct oppositional activity against government in a mechanical sense, but also to change the imagination of authority and the apparatus of belief that sustains it. In doing so, it can foster new forms of solidarity, brought into being partly through the self-recognition that artistic intervention can provoke.

Th ese are some of the themes explored in this extraordinarily interesting collection of essays on aesthetic aspects of political protest in a wide variety of sites across the globe. Initially devoted to understanding these features in the context of the Arab uprisings that began in 2011, the book goes on to look at examples of aesthetic intervention in places as diverse as Spain, Botswana, India and Wisconsin. Meticulous in their attention to the specifi cities of place and time, the authors of these 14

essays nevertheless address a number of common themes that give a satisfying coherence to the whole book.

Th is is prefi gured by a thoughtful introduction that sets the stage – to continue the analogy of the spectacle – for what is to come. Highlighting a number of aspects of the aesthetic, the editors draw together common strands that are explored in detail in very specifi c settings in the chapters that follow and that help to illuminate a grammar of aesthetics in the politics of contestation. In doing so, the editors highlight such features as spaces and sites of protest, the performative aspects of the political, the link between humour and the subversion of authority, as well as the role of new media and their capacity to establish common imagery, adapted to and transformed by specifi c settings. Given the richness of essays that draw on anthropology, studies of popular culture and politics, it is hard to do justice here to the many insights provided by these cross-disciplinary approaches. It is a book of lasting value that is as accessible as its subject matter and as visually striking, thanks to the vivid photographs used throughout.

Charles Tripp is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East at SOAS. His latest publication is Th e Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East (Cambridge, 2013)


God’s Zoo: Artists, God’s Zoo: Artists, Exiles, LondonersExiles, Londoners

By Marius Kociejowski

Reviewed by Barnaby Rogerson

Carcanet Press, July 2014, £30.00


God’s Zoo is a study in the forces that motivate creativity, focused on 15 exiles at work in contemporary

London. It is a dazzling rich cake, a polymath’s hoard in which each of the 16 chapters is scented and baked to its own stridently diff erent recipe.

Marius Kociejowski is himself an immigrant (the son of a Pole exiled from his homeland to Canada) but cuts straight to the quick of London as a creative free-for-all, by hand picking a group of highly expressive intellectuals drawn from his own chance acquaintance. Th is selection is enforced, not only by his own experiences of benefi cent exile, but from his day job as a book dealer and as a highly regarded poet, with a whole lifetime of real immersion in the lived literary life of London. He also gave himself some tough, highly focused guidelines, and initially intended only to interview artistic exiles who were continuing to use their own language, or artistic idiom, whilst living out their exile in London.

God’s Zoo is a thick book of some 437 pages, but there was not a page I wanted cut. Th is is no migrant-tuned version of Iain Sinclair’s psycho-geographical quests over London. No time is invested

in trying to discover the geography of the old and new immigrant quarters of London: the old Jewish quarter of Whitechapel, the Hugenout weavers of Spitalfi elds, the little Italy of Clerkenwell, French Soho or today’s Bengali Tower Hamlets, Moroccan Golborne Road or Arab Edgeware Road. Instead we head straight out into the featureless suburbs of outer London, to book lined bedsits, studios and well-loved apartments, lined with CDs and framed posters. Not a hint of Orientalist exotica is squeezed from these drab tarmac streets and their rain-wet pavements, nor can one imagine colourful magazine articles being shot amongst their featureless brick terraces serviced by far distant tube stops, towards the end of the line. But what treasures can be unearthed by a man with the patience to talk and the ability to listen! It’s a far cry from brittle everyday London standards of face-fame and fi nancial success married to media access. When you enter the pages you enter a London free of entrepreneurs, fi nanciers, celebrity cooks, cooked-up politicians, estate-agents, diplomats and other state-agents. Instead it’s a city represented by 15 free spirits: theatre directors, journalists, actors, weavers, musicians, artists,

activists and poets, many of whom have hawked other wares to survive, be it furniture, antiquities or second hand books. Each is an exile or a migrant in their own way – driven from their fi rst home by chance, by will or to escape a police state. London was seldom aspired to, unlike the dream destinations of Paris, Rome and Beirut, and the various exiles were eventually drawn to live in London, not so much for its own charm but as a place that is tolerant, comparatively free from fear and where being an outsider is a state of normality.

Each of the 15 chapters – one for each exile – has been condensed into one elegant, superbly long, eccentrically diverse and learned conversation that may have taken Kociejowski ten years of visits, re-writes and draft s to compose or was perhaps the fruit of a single encounter. It is good to see the wider world of what can be described as the Middle East and Central Asia well represented, with chapters on the Syrian sculptor Zahed Tajeddin, the Iraqi poet Fawzi Karim, the Turkish writer Moris Farhi, the Uzbek writer Hamid Ismailov and the Iranian poet Mimi Khlavati.

At the launch party I was surprised that Hamid Ismailov was not asked to read


from his legendary work, Th e Railway, which is still banned in his Central Asian homeland. I was concerned that the long arm of state censorship might have infl uenced an independent bookshop in the heart of Holland Park, but there was a much better reason, for his wife was going to sing instead.

In Iraq the presence of Fawzi Karim in a café or a theatre would almost certainly cause a riot by his fans, or fi ll a football stadium, but here in London he remains on the very outer fringes of fame. Th ough fl uent in many languages, he decided to recite to us in Arabic, followed by a translation, so that we could concentrate on the beauty of its true sound. In the British way of things we will probably only cherish him aft er his death, a sort of Mesopotamian Tolstoy in our midst, writing with love for the full force of Qur’anic-derived Arabic but with an internal, highly individual, romantic voice. Kociejowski’s portrait captures this sympathetic and enlightened fi gure, uniquely disengaged from politics or the habitual strident patriotisms of the nationalist, communist or Baathist poets. His words bring back the innocence of a childhood where a holy ram could walk unharmed through the Baghdad streets, where a poet could be poisoned by the amount of arak bought for him by his

devoted followers and where the memory of the semen-like smell of date sap is all that remains of palm orchards that would be fl attened by the megalomania of Saddam Hussein in a way that almost tangibly connects us with the fateful warnings of Gilgamesh. Truly in this case, the Tigris has poured its treasures into the Th ames.

Th ose who have fallen under the spell of Moris Farhi’s Young Turk (which is either a novel in 13 positions or a coming of age memoir of exuberant beauty) will be enchanted by Kociejowski’s long intimate conversation with its ancient and handsome woman-loving creator. Moris Farhi is undeniably Jewish by blood but heroically Turkish (if not downright Ottoman) by culture, and is another fascinating example of London’s casual enrichment by chance. Moris was sent to England by his working-class Turkish father to learn the workings of the textile trade in Bradford, before he defected south towards theatre studies in London. Like so many exiles there is no regret about youthful hardships and the alienation endured. Instead the real emotional turning point seems to be the middle-aged decision to stay away from home, and not to return back to help old parents, school-friends and homeland. And this decision also feeds and

strengthens their creativity, and indeed enriches both London and in Moris’s case, the honour of his many motherlands. He is a Turk who can speak about the Anatolian minorities with the freedom of true experience, a Jew who can mourn the loss of his Mother’s cultured Sephardic family (shipped off to Auschwitz from Salonika) and who decided to use this grief to better chronicle the Porajamos ‘the Gypsy Holocaust’. He’s a Londoner proud to have been of that fi rst generation of secularly-educated ‘Ataturk’s children’ and an erotic poet who has been given a MBE for his work as an activist for PEN and an inhabitant of God’s Zoo who is free to openly off er up the humanist prayer, ‘God save us from religion.’

Barnaby Rogerson has written North Africa – A History, Th e Prophet Muhammad – a biography, Th e Last Crusaders, Th e Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad and guidebooks to Tunisia and Morocco. He is a member of the Editorial Board and his day job is Publisher at Eland (www.travelbooks.co.uk)

Imagined self-portrait afl oat in the Tigris by Fawzi Karim, one of the artists featured in God's Zoo©

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Practising Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts and Material Culture in the and Material Culture in the Medieval Islamic WorldMedieval Islamic WorldBy Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Reviewed by Hugh Kennedy

IB Tauris, May 2014, £59.00


Diplomatic gift s of the Middle Ages are usually regarded as trivial accessories to the real

business of diplomacy, the making of treaties, arranging military cooperation or developing trade links. Th ey may have oiled the wheels of international contacts but they were not, in themselves, objects of great importance. In this new and original book, Professor Abouseif shows how interesting these gift s could be and how much we can learn from studying them.

Th e Mamluk state from 1260 to 1517 is a particularly fertile area for this enquiry. Th is is partly because it stood at the centre of a world system which meant that the Mamluks maintained diplomatic relations with a wide variety of foreign states. Th ere were relations with other Muslim powers, notably the Il-Khanid and Timurid rulers of Iraq and Iran and later the Ottomans. Th e gift ing between these powers was oft en competitive, attempting to demonstrate their wealth and piety vis-à-vis the others. Alternatively, on occasion, contempt or hostility was indicated by the sending of derisory gift s or items of low value military equipment, symbolic of a developing warlike relationship.

Just as important were the diplomatic gift s exchanged with the Christian powers of the northern shores of the Mediterranean, notably Venice and other Italian city states. Th is diplomacy was largely concerned with the development of trade links so open competition and rivalry were less apparent, but there were military

aspects as well – notably the long struggle of Venetians and Mamluks for control of Cyprus.

But it is not just the wide scope of Mamluk diplomacy which makes the gift ing so interesting: it is the varied natures of the sources which describe the gift s. Th e Mamluk state was nothing if not bureaucratic and careful records were kept of gift s received. While the originals of these records have largely vanished, copies and paraphrases of them are found in the various textbooks of chancery practice and books of advice for princes. Records were also kept by the great chroniclers of the Mamluk era, like al-Maqrizi. Th e records of the Il-Khanids and the Timurids were much less informative, but the Italian sources add a whole new dimension of richness. Th ere are travel accounts, describing how their envoys were received and what they saw, and there are the visual images.

One of the great strengths of Abouseif ’s work has always been her use of both textual and material evidence to shed light on Mamluk ways of doing things and building buildings. She brings this talent to bear on the evidence of diplomatic activity. Th ere are illustrations of surviving examples of luxury armour and textiles of the era and also paintings which depict lavish and extravagant gift s, the tuhaf, which the Arabs list with such enthusiasm. Among the more curious of these are the pictures of the giraff es which were sent from time to time to other Muslim

powers and to Europe. Th ese caused a great sensation when paraded through the streets and were illustrated in both Persian and western chronicles.

Gift s to and from the Mamluks varied according to time and circumstance but luxury items were always the most conspicuous: as so oft en in the history of Middle Eastern commerce in the Middle Ages, textiles were probably the most important of these but, along with spices, the least well-preserved. Glass, rock crystal, horses and elephants are all recorded too. In the 13th and 14th century young slaves, of both sexes, were frequently exchanged between Muslim rulers but by the 15th century such human presents seem to have become much more rare.

Th is is a fascinating book, rich in details, full of delight in the curious and unusual. But it also makes serious points about the ways in which gift s were chosen, the messages they were expected to convey and the whole business of international diplomacy in an era when princely display was a fundamental and essential aspect of the language of power.

Hugh Kennedy has been Professor of Arabic in SOAS since 2007. From 1972 to 2007 he was Lecturer and then Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of numerous books and articles including, most recently, Th e Courts of the Caliphs (2004) and Th e Great Arab Conquests (2007)


Th e Arab Spring occurred within the context of the unravelling of the dominant ‘ruling bargain’ that emerged across the Middle East in the 1950s. Th e old ‘ruling bargain’ is being replaced by new and inchoate systems that redefi ne sources of authority and legitimacy through various devices, experiences and processes; by reassessing the roles, functions and structures of institutions; and by the initiatives of key personalities and actors. Across the Middle East ‘authority’ and ‘political legitimacy’ are in fl ux. Where power will ultimately reside depends largely on the shape, voracity and staying power of these new, emerging conceptions of authority. Th e contributors to this book examine the nature and evolution of ruling bargains, the political systems to which they gave rise, the steady unravelling of the old systems and the structural consequences thereof.

October 2014, Hurst, £20.00

Beyond the Arab Spring:Beyond the Arab Spring:The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle EastThe Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East

Edited by Mehran Kamrava

Christopher Ward provides an analysis of the water crisis in Yemen, including the institutional, environmental, technical and political economy components. He assesses the social and economic impacts of the crisis and provides in-depth case studies in the key management areas. Th e fi nal part of the book off ers an assessment of current strategy and looks at future ways in which the people of the country and their government can infl uence outcomes and make the transition to a sustainable water economy. Th e Water Crisis in Yemen off ers a comprehensive, practical and eff ective approach to achieving sustainable and equitable water-management in a country whose water problems are amongst the most serious in the world.

August 2014, IB Tauris, £68.00

The Water Crisis in Yemen:The Water Crisis in Yemen:Managing Extreme Water Scarcity in the Middle EastManaging Extreme Water Scarcity in the Middle East

By Christopher Ward

BOOKS IN BRIEFBOOKS IN BRIEF

Hizbullah is a leading political actor in Lebanon and a dynamic force in the Middle East with a sophisticated communication strategy. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Hizbullah’s political clout and its public perception have followed an upward trajectory thanks to a political programme that blends military, social, economic and religious elements and adapts to changes in its environment. Its communication strategy is similarly adaptive, supporting the group’s political objectives. Hizbullah’s target audience has expanded to a regional and global viewership. Th e authors of this book address how Hizbullah uses image, language and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to legitimise its political aims and ideology and appeal to diff erent target groups.

August 2014, Hurst, £19.99

The Hizbullah Phenomenon:The Hizbullah Phenomenon:Politics and CommunicationPolitics and Communication

By Lina Khatib, Dina Matar and Atef Alshaer


Syria’s descent into civil war has already claimed an estimated 150,000 lives while nearly nine million people have fl ed their homes. Th is is now the greatest humanitarian and political crisis of the 21st century. John McHugo considers why Syria’s foundations as a nation have proved so fragile. Tracing the history of Syria from the First World War to the present, McHugo lays bare the causes of the current tragedy. He covers the country’s thwarted attempts at independence, the legacies of the Anglo–French partition that fragmented it and the failures of divisive French policies. He then turns to recent events: religious and sectarian tensions that have pulled Syria apart, the pressures of the Cold War and the Arab–Israeli dispute and two generations of rule by the Assads.

June 2014, Saqi Books, £17.99

Syria: Syria: From the Great War to Civil WarFrom the Great War to Civil War

By John McHugo

In 1862, the Prince of Wales, eldest son of Britain’s Queen Victoria, embarked on a grand tour of the Middle East for his education and enlightenment. Accompanying the royal party was Francis Bedford, an accomplished practitioner of the still young art of photography, charged with taking views of the cities and historic places visited on the tour for the royal album. Th e result is an extraordinary collection of some of the best early photographs of Cairo and the temples of Upper Egypt, Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Lebanon and Damascus, Izmir and Constantinople. From timeless views of the Pyramids, the Dome of the Rock, Baalbek, and Hagia Sophia to scenes from another age of the streets of Cairo or tall ships on the Bosphorus, 120 of Bedford’s most outstanding photographs are showcased here in this visual tour of ancient lands in royal company.

September 2014, Th e American University in Cairo Press, £24.95

Cities, Citadels, and Sights of Cities, Citadels, and Sights of the Near East:the Near East:Francis Bedford's Nineteenth-Century Photographs Francis Bedford's Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt, the Levant, and Constantinopleof Egypt, the Levant, and ConstantinopleText by Sophie Gordon and Badr El Hage

BOOKS IN BRIEFBOOKS IN BRIEF

During the formative period of Islam, in the fi rst centuries aft er Muhammad’s death, two particular intellectual traditions emerged, Sunnism and Shi’ism. Sunni Muslims endorsed the historical caliphate, while Shi’i Muslims, supporters of ‘Ali, cousin of the Prophet and the fourth caliph, articulated their own distinctive doctrines. Th e Sunni–Shi’i schism is oft en framed as a dispute over the identity of the successor to Muhammad, whereas in reality, Sunni and Shi’i Muslims also diff er on a number of seminal theological doctrines concerning the nature of God and legitimate political and religious authority. Th is book examines the development of Shi’i Islam through the lenses of belief, narrative and memory, covering a wide range of Shi’i communities from the demographically predominant Twelvers to the transnational Isma’ilis to the scholar-activist Zaydis.

October 2014, Cambridge University Press, £17.99

Shi’i Islam:Shi’i Islam:an Introductionan Introduction

By Najam Haider


and opened an exhibition on Istanbul, Ottoman Turkey and Europe. Connections between the Ottomans and Europe later became the subject of Th e Renaissance and the Ottoman World (Ashgate, 2013, edited with Claire Norton). Th is theme continues in an on-going interdisciplinary and multi-institutional project that I am directing on various Middle Eastern metal pieces in Europe, the best known being the imposing bronze Griffi n that was installed on the roof of Pisa cathedral, consecrated in 1118. I am interested in the movement of objects, in the transmission of ornament and, especially, in the reception and interpretation of Middle Eastern and European art across cultural boundaries.

In addition to teaching Arab and Persian painting, and the art and material culture of the Middle East, I have introduced courses on East–West connections and, as the new Head of the School of Arts (SoA), I shall be involved with further fascinating and challenging interdisciplinary projects, fostering joint research, exhibitions and teaching programmes that involve its three component parts: History of Art and Archaeology, Music and Media.

PROFILEPROFILE

Anna ContadiniAnna Contadini

Art and music have been interests of mine since childhood, and while studying in Venice I took a

Diploma in Piano from the Conservatory ‘Benedetto Marcello’ and at the same time obtained a Laurea in Arabic and Islamic Art at Cà Foscari University. It is then that I started travelling to the Arab countries, Turkey and Iran, and these research trips, continued throughout my career, have allowed me to explore numerous collections and to study major monuments in the region.

Encouraged by the late Géza Fehérvári, I then enrolled in SOAS’ PhD programme, and under the supervision of Michael Rogers wrote a thesis on early Islamic illustrated manuscripts,

now published as A World of Beasts (Brill, 2012). Th is refl ects my interest in the production and consumption of illustrated manuscripts in the Middle East and the relationship between text and image.

Soon aft er completing the PhD, I won a two-year Research Fellowship in Islamic Studies at the Research Department of the V&A where my main task was to study the early Islamic collection of the Museum. Th is gave me the opportunity to extend my interests and expertise to material culture and objects and to publish, in 1998, Fatimid Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I then took up a lectureship in Islamic Art at Trinity College, Dublin and then became Curator of the Islamic Collections at the Chester Beatty Library, before returning to SOAS as Lecturer in Islamic Art in 1997.

My exploration of the SOAS collections resulted in an exhibition at the Brunei Gallery in 2007, with an accompanying publication entitled Objects of Instruction: Treasures of the School of Oriental and African Studies, funded by the Foyle Foundation and the AHRC. It made the artistic assets of SOAS accessible for the fi rst time to a wider audience and created a space permanently dedicated to SOAS artistic and archival treasures: the Foyle Special Collections Gallery. In 2012 it was followed by Gift s of Recognition: Modern and Contemporary Art from the SOAS Collections, and earlier this year I curated Th e Arts of South East Asia from the SOAS Collections, still currently on display.

A key thread that has run throughout my career – whether in research, curatorship or teaching – has been to investigate the connections between the Middle East and Europe. Th e Fatimid pieces I studied at the V&A, for instance, included rock crystal objects that were oft en used as reliquaries in Western Churches. At the Chester Beatty Library I concentrated on a later period of relations between the West and the Islamic world

Professor of the History of Islamic Art, SOAS


PROFILEPROFILE

Mostafa DahshtiMostafa Dahshti

Born in 1960 in Khash, Iran, Mostafa Dashti has devoted many years to exploring communication on

canvas. Dashti studied painting and calligraphy under the tutelage of Adin Aghadashlou, the late Seyed Ahmad Abtahi and Abdulah Faradi. Dashti has stated that nature is at the root of his artistic expression. Every item in his paintings can be traced to something in nature: earth, sky, clouds and even celestial bodies. His early work, inspired by his birthplace, depicted powerful desert scenes. Today landscapes,

whether natural or man-made, are still a preoccupation in most of his pieces.

In recent years, Dashti’s mode of communication has become a bit more abstract and he has developed a preference for using darker colours. Karl Schlamminger describes these works as becoming ‘... somehow light. In them, up and down, front and back, weight and weightlessness, and water and air lose their conventional and established meanings. Th eir creation is neither based on motifs nor are they intended to convey any moral lessons; these creations’, he

Artist

Mostafa Dashti, Galaxy, 2011. Oil on canvas. Donated by Iran Heritage Foundation to the Centre for Iranian Studies, London Middle East Institute

continues, ‘simply follow the rules of the image itself.’

Dedicated to communication through painting since 1984, Mostafa Dashti’s works have appeared in exhibitions and displays in cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Dubai and Los Angeles.


Events in LondonEvents in LondonLISTINGS

THE EVENTS and organisations listed below are not necessarily endorsed

or supported by The Middle East in London. The accompanying texts and images are based primarily on information provided by the organisers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the compilers or publishers. While every possible effort is made to ascertain the accuracy of these listings, readers are advised to seek confirmation of all events using the contact details provided for each event.

Submitting entries and updates: please send all updates and submissions for entries related to future events via e-mail to [email protected]

BM – British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG SOAS –SOAS, University of London, Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XGLSE – London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2 2AE

DECEMBER EVENTS

Monday 1 December

Until 11 December | 2014 London Palestine Film Festival (Film) Th is year’s festival features more than 40 works of fi lm and video by Palestinian and international artists with 22 screenings, director talks, and panel discussions scheduled. Tickets: Various. Barbican Cinema and University of London venues. E info@palestinefi lm.org W http://palestinefi lmfoundation.org/

Until 27 December | BFI’s Discover Arab Cinema (Film) Tickets: Various. BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank,

London SE1 8XT. T 020 7928 3232 W https://whatson.bfi .org.uk

5:15 pm | Cookery and Visual Knowledge: Toward a Social History of Safavid Iran (Seminar) Sussan Babaie, Th e Courtauld Institute. Organised by: Department of History, SOAS. Near & Middle East History Seminar. Admission free. Room B104, Brunei Gallery, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/history/events/

6:00 pm | Christian and Jewish Tombstones from Ancient Zoara/Zoora (Lecture) Ilaria Bultrighini, UCL. Organised by: Anglo Israel Archaeological Society (AIAS) and the Institute of Jewish Studies. Admission free. Lecture Th eatre G6, Ground Floor, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY. T 020 8349 5754 W www.aias.org.uk

6:15 pm | "If an eclipse of the sun takes place…" Th e solar eclipse omens of the Ancient Near Eastern series enūma anu enlil (Lecture) Jeanette Fincke, SOAS. Organised by: London Centre for the Ancient Near East. Admission free. Room L67, SOAS. T 020 7898

4328 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/nme/ane/lcane/

Tuesday 2 December

5:45 pm | Why Yemen matters: Development, Security and the rhetoric of Unity (Lecture) Helen Lackner, British-Yemeni Society. Organised by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme on the Contemporary Middle East, Th e Middle East - Changing Economic and Political Landscapes. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

6:30 pm | Th e Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication (Talk) Lina Khatib, Carnegie Middle East Center; Dina Matar, SOAS. Organised by: LSE Middle East Centre. Lina Khatib and Dina Matar present their most recent book, Th e Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication in which they address how Hizbullah uses image, language and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to legitimise its

political aims and ideology and appeal to diff erent target groups. Admission free. Wolfson Th eatre, New Academic Building, LSE. T 020 7955 6520 E [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/

Wednesday 3 December

1:00 pm | ‘Th e Promised Land’: Gender in al-Tabari’s Political Account of the Rise of Islam (Seminar) Ulrika Mårtensson, Th e Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Organised by: Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS. Admission free. B111, Brunei Gallery, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/islamicstudies/events/

5:30 pm | Th e Curious Life of Objects in the Arabian Nights: what can food, gems and clothes tell us about cultural encounters (Inaugural Lecture) Wen-chin Ouyang, SOAS. Organised by: SOAS. Ouyang's inaugural lecture will trace the ways in which jade and silk fi gure in literary texts, and consider the role of literature in memorializing cultural encounters. Admission free – Pre-registration required. Brunei

Villa Touma (2014), Dir Suha Arraf (See December Events, p. 25)


Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4013 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/

6:30 pm | Food for thought: a conversation about Persian culinary arts (Panel Discussion & Reception) Organised by: Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF). Chaired by Sussan Babaie of Th e Courtauld Institute, a panel of culinary experts will discuss Persian food, their relationship with it, its characteristics, and its representation today. Tickets: £10. Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP. T 020 3651 2121 E [email protected] W www.iranheritage.org

7:00 | A Horse by a Pond and Other Congruities in Medieval Iranian Ceramic Decoration (Lecture) Th e Hadassah and Daniel Khalili Memorial Lecture in Islamic Art and Culture. Oya Pancaroğlu, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. Organised by: Islamic Art Circle

at SOAS and the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Part of the Islamic Art Circle at SOAS Lecture Programme. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/art/islac/

Th ursday 4 December

4:00 pm | From 3rd Millennium BC Hunters to Crusaders: Culture, Beliefs & Commercial Dealings in Ancient Sidon (Lecture) Claude Doumet Serhal, BM. Organised by: Palestine Exploration Fund and the BM. Evans Memorial Lecture. A talk on the ancient city state of Sidon which the BM, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Lebanon, has been excavating for the past 15 years. Admission free - Pre-registration required T 020 7323 8181 W www.britishmuseum.org BP Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, BM. T 020 7935 5379 E [email protected] W www.pef.org.uk / www.britishmuseum.org

6:30 pm | From Imperial Capital to Global City: Transformations of Istanbul 1914-2014 (Lecture) Erik-Jan Zürcher, Leiden University. Organised by: Th e British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). BIAA Annual Lecture.Zürcher, one of the world’s leading experts on Turkey, will chart the development of the architecture, economy and population of Istanbul in the 20th and 21st

centuries. Tickets: £10/BIAA members free - Pre-registration required. Th e British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. T 020 7969 5204 E [email protected] W www.biaa.ac.uk

Saturday 6 December

9:00 am | Th e First World War and its Aft ermath: Th e Shaping of the Middle East (Two-Day Conference: Saturday 6 -Sunday 7 December 2014) Organised by: Th e Gingko Library. Gingko Conference 2014. Th e inaugural

Gingko conference looks at the immediate aft ermath of the First World War with a particular focus on how the period began a long process of reshaping the identities of the peoples of the Middle East. Convened by HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan and Barbara Schwepcke, Gingko Library. Tickets: Pre-registration required E [email protected] Venue: SOAS. W http://thegingkolibrary.com/

Sunday 7 December

10:00 am | Th e First World War and its Aft ermath: Th e Shaping of the Middle East (Two-Day Conference: Saturday 6 -Sunday 7 December 2014) See listing above.

Monday 8 December

2:30 pm | Be Inspired at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG): Yemen and Hadhramaut (Talk) Alasdair MacLeod, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

GINGKO LIBRARY CONFERENCE 2014The First World War and its Aftermath: The Shaping of the Middle East

6-7 December2014 At SOAS and The New College of the Humanities

I N D I V I D U A L S E S S I O N T I C K E T S N O W AVA I L A B L E F R O M W W W. T H E G I N G K O L I B R A R Y. C O M

Alaa Al Aswany and Tarek Osman‘From the Arab Revolt to the Arab Spring’

Introduced by Nur Laiq | Saturday 6th December | 17.00 | Brunei Gallery, SOAS

F R E E E V E N T – O N L I N E R E G I S T R AT I O N E S S E N T I A L

Brett Wilson, Louise Pyne-Jones, Aaron Y. Zelin. Chaired by Omar AshourSunday 7th December | 13.00 | Brunei Gallery, SOAS

T I C K E T S £ 1 0 ( C O N C E S S I O N S £ 5 )

£ 5 0 ( C O N C E S S I O N S £ 3 0 )

Includes 11 sessions over two days at SOAS and the New College of the Humanities


Kamran Djam Annual Lectures Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, University of London

Nizâmî : Mirror of the Unseen WorldNizâmî’s Brides of the Seven Climes

Michael Barry, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Princeton University

Monday: 7.00pm Preceded by a recep on at 6.00pm in the Brunei SuiteTuesday: 7.00pm

Khalili Lecture TheatreSOAS, University of LondonRussell SquareLondon WC1H 0XG

Admission Free - All Welcome

Enquiries Tel. No. 020 7898 4330 E-mail [email protected] Website www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/

Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 February 2015


Organised by: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). MacLeod profi les early travellers and explorers who have engaged with the people and places of the region, examining how they are represented in the Society’s Collections and the use of their historical legacy today. Tickets: £5/RGS-IBG and educational free - Pre-registration required. Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR. T 020 7591 3044 E [email protected] W www.rgs.org/collectionsevents

5:15 pm | From Iran to the Deccan and Back Again: King-Making and Commemoration in Early Modern Persian Narratives of Migration (Seminar) Derek Mancini-Lander, SOAS. Organised by: Department of History, SOAS. Near & Middle East History Seminar. Admission free. Room B104, Brunei Gallery, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/history/events/

6:15 pm | New Data on Sealing Practices at Ancient Nuzi on the Basis of the Harvard Semitic Museum Material (Seminar) Marta Luciani, University of Vienna. Organised by: London Centre for the Ancient Near East. Admission free. Room L67, SOAS. T 020 7898 4328 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/nme/ane/lcane/

7:00 pm | In Conversation with Alaa Al Aswany: Democracy is the Answer (Discussion) Organised by: Th e Frontline Club. In his new book Democracy is the Answer: Egypt’s Years of Revolution, the novelist Al Aswany brings together his weekly columns for the newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm to give a picture of Egypt’s recent history and refl ects on events of the past four years, the divisions that they have created and the hope for the future. Tickets: £12.50/£10 conc.Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ. T 020 7479 8940 E [email protected] W www.frontlineclub.com

Tuesday 9 December

5:45 pm | Palestine: Th e Invisible Damage of Life under Occupation (Lecture) Samah

Jabr, psychiatrist practicing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Organised by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI), the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS and the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme on the Contemporary Middle East, Th e Middle East - Changing Economic and Political Landscapes. How does the political situation impact on the mental health of Palestinians living under occupation? How do Palestinians respond to their extraordinary circumstances? What can international civil society contribute? Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

6:30 pm | Ben Bella's Algeria: Th ird Worldism beyond Continents and Colours (Lecture) Jeff rey Byrne, University of British Columbia. Organised by: Th e Society for Algerian Studies and the LSE Middle East Centre. Byrne investigates the fate of decolonisation in North Africa, with a particular focus on the fate of anti-colonial internationalism (or “Th ird Worldism”) following the triumph of post-colonial territorial nationalism. Admission free. Room 9.04, Tower 2, Clement's Inn, LSE. T 020 7955 6520 E [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/


1:00 pm | Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-1976 (Panel Discussion) Abdel Razzaq Takriti, University of Sheffi eld; Laleh Khalili, SOAS; Charles Tripp, SOAS. Organised by: School of Law, SOAS and the Centre for the study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law, SOAS (CCEIL). Discussion of the award-winning book: Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-1976 by Abdel Razzaq Takriti. Moderator: Nimer Sultany, SOAS. Admission free. Room L101, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR. E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/cceil/

7:00 pm | Opaz: Nomadic Soul

of Gypsy Music (Concert) Part of the SOAS Concert Series. Opaz is an ensemble that plays music in the Romani (Gypsy) style from Turkey and other parts of the North-Eastern Mediterranean. Admission free. Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4500 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/concerts

Th ursday 11 December

6:30 pm | Dr Nelida Fuccaro on Oil Lives and Cultures in Iraq under the Monarchy (Lecture) Organised by: Th e British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) & Th e Iraqi Cultural Centre – UK. Fuccaro will explore the lives and cultures of Iraq’s oil workers before the 1958 Revolution, contrasting the oft en turbulent landscape of Kirkuk and the more peaceful and positive image of the oil bonanza popularized by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). Admission free. Th e Iraqi Cultural Centre - UK, Th reshold House, 65 Shepherd's Bush Green, London W12 8TX. E [email protected] W www.bisi.ac.uk / www.iraqiculturalcentre.co.uk

Saturday 13 December

2:00 pm | Gender, Fundamentalism and the New Politics in the Middle East (Seminar) Nira Yuval-Davis, CMRB, UEL; Zahra Ali, EHESS; Sara Khan, Inspire; Magdulein Abaida. Organised by: CMRB (Centre for research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London) the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS. Admission free - Pre-registration required E gfnpme.eventbrite.co.ukRoom G3, SOAS. W www.uel.ac.uk/cmrb and www.facebook.com/CMRBuel / www.soas.ac.uk/genderstudies

7:00 pm | A Night of Persian Traditional Musical Instruments and Concert, Vocal: Jamshid Rezaei Organised by: Naghmeh Ensemble in association with the London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). A unique event featuring Persian musical instruments followed by a concert with the Naghmeh Ensemble and Jamshid Rezaei (vocal). Persian music maestro, Hossein Tavan will

be playing alongside the group and will be leading a workshop 3-6:00pm prior to the concert. Tickets: £15 available from the SOAS Online Store. Admission to the Workshop is free. Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 / 020 8455 8184 / 0746 6112 888 E [email protected] / [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

7.00 pm | Yalda night: A concert of Iranian and Italian music in celebration of Yalda night Yalda night concert of Iranian and Italian music, organised by Peyman Heydarian of the Voice of Santur and the SOAS Iranian Music Society to celebrate the longest night of the year. Tickets: £15/£10 students and the unwaged/£6 SOAS students. DLT, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.thesantur.com


6:30 pm | T E Lawrence and the Th ird Arab Uprising (Lecture) Noel Brehony, CBRL. Organised by: Th e Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL). AGM Lecture. Brehony will examine the emergence of Arab states aft er the uprisings of First World War along with the impact of the revolutions of the mid twentieth century and how the uprisings that started in 2011 are challenging the political and geographical shape of these states. Admission free - Pre-registration required. Wolfson Auditorium, Th e British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. E [email protected] W www.cbrl.org.uk

Friday 19 December

12:00 pm | Turkey’s Transitions: Integration, Inclusion, Institutions – A new World Bank study on Turkey’s rise, its lessons and limitations (Seminar) Martin Raiser, World Bank, Ankara. Organised by: SOAS Modern Turkish Studies Programme, LMEI. Sponsored by Nurol Bank. Part of the Seminars on Turkey series. Convened by Benjamin Fortna, SOAS. Admission free. Room 116, SOAS. T 020 7898 4431 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/


JANUARY EVENTS

Monday 12 January

6:30 pm | Berber Government: the Kabyle polity in pre-colonial Algeria (Lecture) Hugh Roberts, Tuft s University, Boston. Organised by: Th e Society for Algerian Studies and the LSE Middle East Centre. Roberts discusses his new book in which he lays the foundation of a new way of understanding the complex place and role of the Kabyles in Algerian political life from the pre-colonial era to the present day. Admission free. Wolfson Th eatre, New Academic Building, LSE. T 020 7955 6520 E [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/

Th ursday 15 January

4:00 pm | Th e Holy Land Lovingly Explored and Documented in the late Ottoman Period (Lecture) Organised by: Th e

British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA) jointly with the PEF and CBRL. Hisham Khatib, World Energy Council. Khatib explores the history of westerners’ observations of the Holy Land through his own collection of manuscripts, paintings, photographs and maps. Admission free. BP Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, BM. Admission free. E [email protected] W www.thebfsa.org

5:45pm | Shadows of the Middle East: Does ‘Loyal Opposition’ Off er Lessons for the Region? (Lecture) Nigel Fletcher, Centre for Opposition Studies. Organised by: MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Part of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation Lecture Series. Admission free - Pre-registration required. MBI Al Jaber Conference Room, London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI), University of London, MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA. E [email protected] W www.mbifoundation.com

Friday 16 January

Time TBC | From Persepolis to Isfahan: Safeguarding Cultural Heritage (Th ree-Day Conference: Friday 16 - Sunday 18 January) Th e conference will highlight some of the damage to monuments and sites as well as possible steps to preserve them. Organised by: Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) and the Soudavar Memorial Foundation with support from the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS). Tickets & Venue: Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP. T 020 3651 2121 E [email protected] W www.iranheritage.org

Monday 19 January

6:00 pm | Ahab's Ivory House: When was it Destroyed? (Lecture) Rupert Chapman, British Museum. Organised by: Anglo Israel Archaeological Society (AIAS) and the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Th e Richard Barnett Memorial Lecture.

Admission free. Lecture Th eatre G6, Ground Floor, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY. T 020 8349 5754 W www.aias.org.uk

Tuesday 20 January

5:45 pm | Israel/Palestine: does recognising both states make a diff erence? (Lecture) Sir Vincent Fean KCVO, former UK Consul-General to Jerusalem. Organised by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme on the Contemporary Middle East, Th e Middle East - Changing Economic and Political Landscapes. Two thirds of the world recognises Palestine as a state - but the confl ict and the occupation go on. Sir Vincent Fean will discuss the framework for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land - if that is still attainable. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E vp6@soas.

www.ibtauris.com320 pages 216 x 134mm 9781784532161 Paperback £14.99

THE YEZIDISThe History of a Community, Culture

and Religion

Birgül Açikyildiz

Will probably long remain the definitive work on Yezidi material culture.’– Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University

‘A fascinating narrative and photographic journey through Yezidi religion, society and material culture.’- Nelida Fuccaro, SOAS, University of London

In an accessible and readable style, Açikyildiz’s book examines the Yezidis from a religious point of view and as a historical and social phenomenon. She throws light on the origins of Yezidism, and charts its development and changing fortunes from its beginnings to the present Extensively illustrated, with maps, photographs and illustrations, this pioneering book is a testimonial to one of the region’s most extraordinary and ancient peoples.

NEW IN PAPERBACK


ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

6:30 pm | Bahrain's Election Boycott: Lessons from Kuwait (Lecture) Kristin Diwan. Organised by: LSE Middle East Centre. Diwan asks whether the recent parliamentary elections in Bahrain - boycotted by the political opposition - will contribute to stability and democratic advancement, drawing lessons from Kuwait's recent experience. Admission free. Room 2.02, Clement’s House, LSE. T 020 7955 6520 E [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/

Wednesday 21 January

5:00 pm | Continuity and Creativity: Models of Change

in Persian Poetry, Classical and Modern (Lecture) Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland and SOAS. Annual Departmental Lecture and Second Leverhulme Lecture. Admission free. DLT, SOAS. E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/7:00 pm | Persian art and architecture in fi ft eenth-century Deccan with Peyvand Firouzeh & Persian Constitutionalism in the 1920s with Nathaniel Rees (Lecture) Organised by: Th e Iran Society. Student Lectures. Admission free for Society members and one guest. Pall Mall Room, Th e Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress code calls for gentlemen to wear jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 E [email protected] W www.iransociety.org

Friday 23 January

7:00 pm | Olcay Bayir: Anatolian Song Sketches (Concert) Part of the SOAS Concert Series. Olcay Bayir sings her own contemporary compositions to original arrangements of traditional folk songs from across the region of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Admission free. Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4500 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/concerts

Tuesday 27 January

5:45 pm | Title TBC (Lecture) Organised by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme on the Contemporary Middle East, Th e Middle East - Changing Economic and Political

Landscapes. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330/4490 E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/

EXHIBITIONSUntil 19 December | Songs of the Deserts A celebration of the desert in mosaic, calligraphy and storytelling. Artists: Elaine M Goodwin (mosaic), Mohamed Abaoubida (calligraphy), and author Richard Hamilton. Admission free. Th e Street Gallery, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4ND. E [email protected] W http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/events/exhibitions/

Until 19 December | What Remains - Part II A group exhibition about memory: an idea, an impression, a feeling; a poem; an image; a glimpse of what we have seen, heard, or read; what struck us as important then or now. What is lasting and what is transient, and about the artists’ contribution to their local and global culture. Admission free. Rose Issa Projects, 82 Great Portland Street, London W1W 7NW. T 020 7323 1710 E [email protected] W www.roseissa.com

Until 22 February | Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East Seen through the photographs of Francis Bedford (1815-94) this exhibition follows the journey taken by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in 1862, as he undertook a four month tour around the Middle East. Tickets: Various. Th e Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA. T 020 7766 7334 W www.royalcollection.org.uk

Until 29 March | Poetry and exile: works by Abdallah Benanteur, Ipek Duben, Mireille Kassar, Mona Saudi and Canan Tolon Display drawn from recent acquisitions of works by artists of the Middle East and North Africa at the British Museum, explores the eff ects of exile through the eyes of fi ve artists. See exhibition review pp. 15-16. Admission free. Room 34, BM. T 020 7323 8299 E [email protected] W www.britishmuseum.org

Bita Ghezelayagh, "Talismanic Fragments" felt, carpet, wire, screws, silken thread, print, old pen nibs, iron, 113X113cm (2014). What Remains - Part II (See Exhibtions, p. 30)


AAN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF IRAN

16-18 JANUARY 2015

ASIA HOUSE 63 NEW CAVENDISH STREET

LONDON W1G 7LP

FROM PERSEPOLIS TO ISFAHAN SAFEGUARDING CULTURAL HERITAGE

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO BOOK TICKETS PLEASE VISIT WWW.IRANHERITAGE.ORG

ORGANISED BY IRAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION & THE SOUDAVAR MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, WITH SUPPORT FROM THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF PERSIAN STUDIES


(International) in the United Kingdom

Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations

Based in central London, the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations two-year MA Programme:

• Offers a distinctive way of understanding Muslim civilisations as they have evolved over time.

• Stresses the plurality and complexity of past and present Muslim cultures, studying them as part of world cultures.

• Employs the tools of the social sciences and humanities as a framework for learning.

Within the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities our students study a number of subjects including development studies, economics, political science, gender, modernity and globalisation, history, literature, material culture, comparative religion and law; students are also required to study either Arabic, Persian or Turkish and undertake an intensive four-week language course abroad.

Financial assistance is available.

For further information and to register for the open day visit: www.aku.edu/ismc

MA in Muslim Cultures

January

15Virtual Open Day: 15 January 201512.00-13.00

February

27Application Deadline: 27 February 2015

Documents

THIS ISSUE: CONTEMPORARY ART The visual language of dissent