Latest news with #Orientalist
Sharjah 24
07-07-2025
- General
- Sharjah 24
SIH launches Abdulaziz Al Musallam's "Cursetjee's Journey" book
The publication offers an in-depth critical reading of the journey of an Indian traveler of Persian origin to the Gulf region in the late nineteenth century, revealing racist and class-based prejudices in the description of Arabs within an Orientalist context influenced by the British colonial vision. The 68-page publication is part of the Institute's 2025 publications. It is the result of a field and cultural trip Al Musallam made to Mumbai, India, last June, searching its government archives for documents related to the Gulf. The trip, in collaboration with several academics, including researcher Dr Chhaya Goswami, explored the city's government archives for documents related to the Gulf. A shocking text and a documentation project The project began more than two decades ago, when Dr. Abdulaziz Al Musallam found the book "Land of the Date" in an office and was surprised by its shocking content. In the book, the author describes the Gulf residents in disparaging terms, including: "Most of them are Arabs and Persians... They are characterised by their coarse nature and hideous appearance... These passengers rarely wash, or do not wash at all." He also described the workers as: "Similar to a group of vagabonds... Noisy, dirty, and hideous... The passengers liken them to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." This harsh language prompted Al Musallam to delve deeper into the travelogue and analyse the cultural and social contexts that shaped this biased view of the people of the Gulf and the region. A Cultural analysis of a colonial context The book deals with Cursetjee's journey from Bombay to Basra between 1916 and 1917, at the height of World War I, when British influence was rising in the Gulf. The traveler provides an accurate description of the ports, people, customs, natural phenomena, and myths. However, reading the book critically reveals a biased perspective that reflects the condescending view that prevailed in British Orientalist discourse toward Arabs during that period. A publication that represents an ongoing project Dr Abdulaziz Al Musallam emphasised that these publications are not just written papers, but rather an intellectual project that reflects the commitment of the Emirate of Sharjah and the UAE to preserving cultural heritage and passing it on to future generations." He added that this work represents the first part of an expanded project, to be published later in a second part. The project will address the traveler's notes during his visits to several other Arab countries and regions, including his observations on architecture, social life, markets, and local people, in an attempt to connect the textual image to the historical and cultural reality of that period.
Vogue
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Zuhair Murad Resort 2026 Collection
In Zuhair Murad's world, opulence is always in season. Even so, with Resort the designer pushed it one step further by lavishing jewels on clothing, from piercing-style trimmings and shimmying pearls to winking crescent moon embroidery and straight-up Maharaja grandeur. Focusing on the intricacies of craftsmanship, the designer reckons, is the best tactic for keeping good vibes flowing in the studio. And, as any jewelry lover can attest, such adornments can also be armor. Here, Murad drew inspiration from the Orientalist trend of a century ago, arranging color, crystals, embroidery and faux pearls into chokers, sautoirs, baubles and brooches or working them directly into the drape of a dress. Day wear was fair game, too: a blazer might have an integrated scarf with piercings—pearls, charms, crystals, the brand's sunburst logo—running the length of its edge; those elements could also be found on an easy jumpsuit with a panel scarf meant to 'give daywear a touch of evening.' While many shapes here were familiar, the designer also tried a few new ones, such as balloon-y pants that scrunched at the ankles, or a shantung silk tunic with tie closures, seed pearls and gradient floral embroidery. A restrained palette of oyster beige, baby's breath pink or black was punched up here and there with sage green or canary yellow, for example on a relatively spare openwork dress. But mostly, this collection was all about jewelry-as-attire. On one dress, a jeweled body harness ran from choker to hips with a sensuality of movement that is lost in a still. A tapestry of gems appeared on a transparent mesh bodysuit that, in some very specific contexts, might conceivably venture out under a jacket in broad daylight but will come into its own by night. Murad does know when to pull back, however. A pink dress, for example, stood out for its simplicity, embellished with nothing more than fan pleating. Asymmetrical lace placements brought lashings of sheer to otherwise unembellished dresses. A couple of georgette dresses with contrasting lace inlay, and another number in Italianate print made room for a little more romance. New accessories included brooches designed to wear on jacket lapels, as halter ties, or as embellishments on goddess gowns in jersey. Resort means ready-to-wear, but couture ideas are always in the mix— and what is couture but a space to dream? In an uncertain world, it's as good a coping mechanism as any.
Saba Yemen
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
How did orientalism approach Al-Mutanabbi?
Amman - Saba: Jordanian researcher Hamza Amin explores in his book "Al-Mutanabbi in the Mirror of Orientalism" the study by French Orientalist Régis Blachère on Al-Mutanabbi, which examined the poet's personality, his poetry, and the social, political, intellectual, and ideological circumstances of his time. According to the Omani News Agency, the author explains that he chose Blachère's perspective because it extended to redrawing the historical, political, and intellectual frameworks in which Al-Mutanabbi operated, then meticulously rearranged his poetic history without overlooking the key artistic features of his poetry. Amin clarifies that Blachère's perspective represents the Western view of an Arab literary and critical phenomenon. Blachère's work was distinguished not only as that of a researcher but also as an Orientalist who applied the same analytical tools to Arabic literature as he did to foreign literature—an approach that may sometimes lead to confusion in conclusions and judgments. In his introduction to the book, Dr. Ghassan Abdul Khaliq notes that researcher Hamza Amin engaged with two highly "ambiguous and complex" issues: Al-Mutanabbi on one hand and Orientalism on the other. Amin "spared no effort in shedding light on many of the ambiguities surrounding this complexity." According to him, Al-Mutanabbi "was, is, and will remain a continent shrouded in mystery," while Blachère "was, is, and will remain a controversial Orientalist—with his merits and flaws." The book consists of an introduction, a preface, two chapters, and a conclusion. The preface discusses the concept of the "mirror" as a means of reflecting the image of Al-Mutanabbi as portrayed by Blachère for the West. It then defines Orientalism and provides biographies of Al-Mutanabbi and Blachère, followed by an overview of Al-Mutanabbi's image among Orientalists. The first chapter examines Al-Mutanabbi's poetic history from Blachère's perspective, covering the ideological and intellectual currents that influenced the poet, the chronological/poetic framework of his work, and concluding with the poetic themes Blachère highlighted, such as praise, satire, description, love poetry, and wisdom literature. The second chapter focuses on the artistic features of Al-Mutanabbi's poetry from Blachère's viewpoint, emphasizing the key stylistic elements that shaped the poet's diwan (collection of poems). These include the obscure and the unfamiliar, Al-Mutanabbi's fondness for similes and metaphors, antithesis as a recurring phenomenon, and skillful transitions in poetry. The book concludes by highlighting Al-Mutanabbi's image as a critical phenomenon in the fourth century according to Orientalists in general and Blachère in particular. It presents several findings and recommendations, most notably that Al-Mutanabbi did not appear in Orientalist discourse as a singular figure but rather as multiple images, depending on each scholar's perspective and field. Some Orientalists emphasized his historical significance, others deferred his importance to geography, while some classified him among the genius poets. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Indian Express
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Fifty years after Emergency, the new threats to democracy
Amidst the worsening global commotions, triggered by factors ranging from imperial power rivalries, unending wars, border closures and trade and tariff disputes to pandemics, genocides, extreme weather events, collapsing banks and citizen disaffection, a sinister trend is everywhere gaining traction and seemingly getting the upper hand: A new kind of despotism with thoroughly 21st-century characteristics is everywhere on the rise. To speak of despotism is admittedly to invite confusion and controversy and to risk mental confusions. It's an old word with a complicated and chequered history. Long out of fashion — these days 'autocracy' and 'authoritarianism' are the fashionable but mistaken political buzzwords — despotism has often been dismissed as an emotionally charged and fuzzy word laden with Orientalist prejudices against non-Europeans. But when suitably revised and carefully deployed, despotism is an indispensable keyword for making sense of the new global threats to democracy posed not only by polities as different as Russia, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Cuba, and Vietnam, but also by the flourishing attacks on power-sharing democracies led by demagogues and their admirers in countries such as Viktor Orbán's Hungary, Claudia Sheinbaum's Mexico, Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel and Donald J Trump's America. This worldwide growth of despotism ought to puzzle and worry every thinking person. Considered as a type of rule, as a way of handling power, despotism defies the laws of political gravity. It's a peculiar type of pseudo-democratic government led by rulers skilled in the arts of manipulating and meddling with people's lives, marshalling their support, and winning their obedience. Despotism feeds upon the voluntary servitude of its subjects. Those who think the word despotism is a synonym for repression, fear and raw force are profoundly mistaken. Despotic power is not solely understandable through similes of hammers and nails; it requires thinking in terms of the attraction of metal filings to magnets. In practice, the aspiring architects and established rulers of the new despotism are masters of seduction, deception and subjugation. They calibrate their use of violence and manage, using a combination of slick means, including rigged election victories, to win the submission and loyalty of the ruled. Oiled as well by government handouts, rampant patronage, bags of money, legal trickery, and endless media talk of defending 'the people' against its foes, despotism nurtures the docile subservience of its subjects, including important sections of the middle classes, skilled and unskilled workers and the poor. The result: The triumph of top-down pyramids of power that manage to win millions of supporters at home and admirers and friends well beyond the borders of the states they rule. What's especially worrying is that the spirit of despotism is contagious. Despots and demagogues hunt in packs. Their promiscuity knows no limits. Consider the recent grand show moment when an aspiring despot was greeted with open arms and gifts by his more seasoned counterparts: Donald J. Trump's whirlwind May 2025 tour of West Asia. In Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, the all-American demagogue was showered with the honour and recognition he has long craved. Lavish F-15 fighter jet escorts. Lavender and red carpets, mounted camels and women's hair flipping welcome ceremonies. Riders on white horses and Tesla cybertrucks sporting stars and stripes. Grand marbled halls, dazzling crystal chandeliers, the highest civil decorations, including a pure gold necklace connoting luxury and appreciation, the world's tallest building, more than half a mile high, lit up with an image of the American flag. A campaign-style rally at the region's largest US military base in Qatar. The deliverables? Trillion-dollar business and defence contracts signed by cupidity in the presence of greed and fame. Plans (with Saudi Arabia) to establish a joint nuclear energy programme. A preliminary agreement (with the UAE) to import the most advanced AI chips. A lavish gift (from Qatar) of a luxury jet — all in confirmation of the point that in these times of turbulence, despots must fly together in safety and solidarity. There's growing awareness among journalists, intellectuals and citizens that such displays of despotic pomp and bromance power are threatening the spirit and substance of the freedoms and promises of democracy. In these troubled times, this raises the old question: What's so good about democracy? The shortest answer: To be a democrat is to believe that democracy is much more than popular self-government based on free and fair elections. It is to recognise the need to rein in any form of power that harms lives by bringing hardship, sorrow and indignity. Democracy is a shape-shifting way of protecting humans and their biosphere against the corrupting effects of unaccountable power. This is its radical potential: Democracy is the defiant insistence that people's lives are never fixed, that all things, human and non-human, are built on the shifting sands of space-time, and that no person or group, no matter how much power they hold, can be trusted permanently, in any context, to govern the lives of others. This was surely the wisdom and sentiment motivating those people from many walks of life who bravely resisted Indira Gandhi's Emergency rule between June 1975 and March 1977. They understood that democracy is a means of damage prevention. It's an early warning system, a way of enabling citizens, and whole organisations and networks, to sound the alarm whenever they suspect that others are about to cause them harm, or when calamities are already bearing down on their heads. The German anti-philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously complained that democracy stands for the disbelief in rule by elites. It does, and for good reason. Democracy brings things back to Earth. It serves as a reality check on unrestrained power exercised by strong-armed despots and demagogues backed by 'the people'. It is the best means so far invented of ensuring that those in charge of organisations don't stray into cuckoo land, wander into territory where misadventures of power are concealed by lies, silence and weaponised nonsense. The writer is professor of Politics at the University of Sydney. His latest book is Thinking About Democracy in Turbulent Times: Sorbonne Lectures (2025)
Mada
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Mada
Demolitions return to Bab al-Nasr Cemetery
Despite promises by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly to halt the demolition of historic Cairo cemeteries, the removal of human remains and razing of tombs resumed in April in Bab al-Nasr Cemetery. Madbuly's pledge followed public outcry over the destruction of the funerary dome of Nam Chaz Qadin, a concubine of Mohamed Ali Pasha and mother of Prince Mohamed Abdel Halim. Bab al-Nasr Cemetery is one of Cairo's oldest, located opposite Islamic Cairo's Nasr Gate and falling within the bounds of historic Cairo as designated by UNESCO. Its wooden funerary structures are a rare and unique form of architecture. The site contains thousands of graves and tombs belonging to Sufi sheikhs and saints, as well as the Swiss Orientalist Johann Burckhardt (d. 1817). The cemetery also features several ornate mausoleums of wealthy families, and the mud-brick dome of Al-Sitt Zeinab al-Hanafiya (d. 940). In 2024, the cemetery lost approximately 13,000 square meters of its total area as officials moved forward with plans to construct a parking garage and shopping center in its place. Today, it appears authorities are intent on erasing what remains of the cemetery — piece by piece.
