International Journal of Islamic Architecture - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2018

If architecture is an expression of culture, its manifestations tell us something about ourselves, our aspirations, and our desires. But nothing is ever straightforward. Of course, not all architecture was nor is rooted to the land – traditionally some of it expressed the values of the ruling class, be it the grand mosques as expressions of piety or the palaces or corporate office buildings as symbols of power. Iconic images and visual extravagances have always been part of the landscape, from the Taj Mahal to Le Corbusier’s Chapel at Ronchamp to Gehry’s attention-seeking Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. Iconic building has always been part of the visual landscape of the city. And many recent global developments have been enabled and abetted by the consumerist ‘transnational capitalist class’ (TCC). In this process, developers and architects have played a significant role in visualizing the new buildings and cities that serve the TCC. One could argue that in the era of globalization, the relationship between urban economy and urban design seems to be reversed. Urban design has undertaken an enhanced new role as a means of economic development and it is the search for architectural icons that drives the process of architectural design in globalizing cities. The focus on image has reached great heights, abetted by innovations in technology. What has come to be known as the ‘Dubai Effect’ became prevalent at the beginning of the twenty-first century: the need to attract and to create a brand. Architectural publications pander to the new slickness in presenting unusual and visually arresting buildings regardless of their suitability. These increasingly attention-grabbing buildings are forming our perception of the built environment in a cacophony of visual expressions, which makes one wonder in what direction architectural reform is heading.

The Mughal shikargah (hunting ground) defies conventional spatial and functional definitions. Although fragmentary, references to the imperial shikargah in Indo- Mughal literature, memoirs, biographies, gazetteers, and documents suggest that the typology of the shikargah cannot be reduced simply to one form of natural terrain; nor was hunting game its sole purpose. The shikargah was conceptualized to accommodate multifarious functions. Whether areas of wilderness or dedicated preserves, the spaces used for hunting were transformed into public arenas in which the emperors could enact the hunt. In addition, other alterations to the natural environment enabled the occurrence of courtly activities. As the stage for imperial ceremonials and for the meting out of justice, or as sites of encampment and halting during royal inspection tours, the shikargah was inextricably linked to the administration and bureaucracy of the Mughal Empire. The hunt was also a pretext to mobilize armies for reconnaissance and intimidation of restive provinces, during which the shikargah became a venue for military training and armed intervention. Using the framework of the hunt to interpret natural landscapes, this article aims to examine the physical and political processes of modification underlying the Mughal shikargah, those that carried with them semiotics of political power and control.

Since the so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’ of 2009 in Tunisia, the idea of heritage has been destabilized following a series of attacks on religious and cultural sites across the country by militant Salafi groups. Thus far, sites of Jewish heritage have been the most affected. Cultural heritage from Tunisia’s rich ancient history, redolent for certain Islamists with associations of Jahiliyya, has also been targeted. The well-publicized attack on the Bardo Museum in March 2015 was perhaps the most famous symbol of this trend. However, less publicized have been attempts to reclaim some sacred sites, resulting in the occupation of local mosques on the island of Djerba and in the town of Le Kef. In the wake of these events, some Djerbian civilians have stood up to defend what they consider as intrinsic parts of the patrimonial identity of their island. But as they have been defending these mosques against extremist groups, new considerations related to their preservation have surfaced, calling into question their very patrimonialization. In the context of this radical politicization of Tunisian heritage, this article explores the struggle over who defines the meanings and uses of heritage in Tunisia and the new challenges and opportunities that Salafi attacks have created for the heritage sector since the revolution.

The recent increased interest in Ottoman studies has resulted in new research groups, publications, conferences, and exhibitions. Nevertheless, the perception and management of imperial legacies and memories in post-Ottoman societies continues to be a problematic process, in no small part because of the lack of dialogue between Ottoman studies (particularly in regards to material culture) and more traditional areas such as regional history, classical studies, and archaeology. This article attempts to bridge these divides by examining how inherited cultural landscapes were imagined and reconstructed in Islamic societies. Here, the example will be Athens, a city that has a long history of being identified primarily by its ‘glorious’ antiquities. By exploring diverse ways of experiencing and perceiving the many-layered memories of this iconic city, this article highlights the need for a reassessment of how Islamic societies imagined the past. It also illustrates that the very model of how we understand cultural heritage studies needs to be redefined.

This article traces the contested symbolic values of the Red Fort (Lal Qila) of Delhi. Specifically, it queries the ways in which politically bound memories of the site negotiated a Mughal-Muslim past and constructions of a national identity in the 1990s and 2000s. As examined here, these negotiations were made manifest in conservation practices at the site, the criticisms and debates that ensued, and competing claims over what constitutes an ‘authentic’ representation of the site, thus speaking to a collision of attitudes and approaches to conserving India’s Mughal heritage and envisaging India’s ambitions and identity.

The influx of petroleum revenue brought on by the 1973–74 oil embargo led to a dramatic widening of the scope of modernization efforts in the newly independent emirate of Qatar to include the first physical manifestations of a modern national identity in its capital, Doha. Chief among these efforts was the creation of a ‘New Doha’, the development of which included a design competition for a government centre complex that solicited entries from the offices of Kenzo Tange, James Stirling, The Architects Collaborative, and Günter Behnisch. An analysis of the brief, the government actors involved in the selection of a winner, and the entries themselves reveals conflicting visions of the architectural materialization of the new state. These conflicts encompass not only aesthetics, but also ideas concerning political structure, the relationship between the government and its people, and the audience to whom the architectural project was to be addressed. The choice of winner makes clear the national identity that the Emir aspired to at the time, while its failure to be built highlights the obstacles that remained to be overcome.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: LOGICS OF URBANISM IN THE GULF REGION, Steffen WIPPEL, KATRIN BROMBER, CHRISTIAN STEINER, AND BIRGIT KRAWIETZ, EDS (2014) Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, xxiv, 291 pp., b&w and col. illus., maps ISBN: 9781472412881, $127.00 (hardback)

UAE AND THE GULF: ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM NOW, KEVIN MITCHELL AND GEORGE KATODRYTIS, EDS (2015) London: John Wiley & Sons, 144 pp., illus., maps ISBN: 9781118759066, 32.90 (paperback)

LANDSCAPES OF DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPACT OF MODERNIZATION DISCOURSES ON THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, PANAYIOTA I. PYLA, ED. (2013) Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 216 pp., 50 b&w illus., ISBN 9780977122448, $24.95 (paperback)

ARTISANS, SUFIS, SHRINES: COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY PUNJAB, HUSSAIN AHMAD KHAN (2015) London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 256 pp., 20 b&w illus. and 2 maps, ISBN: 9781784530143, $99.00 (hardback)

Thomas Hope: Drawings of Ottoman Istanbul, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Athens, Greece, March 24–September 25, 2016 and Anatolian Travels: 19th Century, Arkas Art Center, Izmir, Turkey, September 7–December 18, 2016

SYRIA: A LIVING HISTORY, AGA KHAN MUSEUM, TORONTO, OCTOBER 15, 2016–FEBRUARY 26, 2017; EXTENDED TO MARCH 27, 2017

Cairo Now! City Incomplete, Dubai Design Week, d3 Dubai Design District, Dubai, October 24–29, 2016

ISLAMIC ART HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN CRISIS? CHALLENGES AND NEW PERSPECTIVES, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, MADRID, GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE/UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID/MUSEO ARCHEOLÓGICO NACIONAL, JANUARY 12–15, 2017