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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Archaeologists up in arms
By Nevine El-ArefAlthough Culture Minister Farouk Hosni defended before parliament last week the proposed relocation of the Museum of Islamic Art from the traffic-congested Bab Al-Khalq Square to the Citadel area, leading archaeologists continue to oppose the move.
Ali Radwan, a professor of archaeology at Cairo University, described the decision as "unwise because not only are the artefacts unique, but the building itself is historically important". He recalled that the museum was built in 1903 to house the first collection of works of art from old mosques and other buildings. Originally, it was called the Museum of Arab Art, but the name was changed in 1952.
Fahmi Abdel-Alim, former chief of the Islamic section at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), believes that renovation of the museum would be more beneficial than its relocation. "The Islamic Museum is one of the world's unique museums because it houses 75 per cent of all Islamic antiques in the Islamic world," he said.
Abdel-Alim argued that the proposed relocation is not the right decision. "If they want to display the objects accumulated in the basement, they can establish specialised museums -- a museum for iron objects, for example, another for coins, a third for woodwork etc.," he said.
According to Sumaya Hassan, a professor of Islamic archaeology at Cairo University, the traffic problem in the Bab Al-Khalq area will be solved, once the construction of the Al-Azhar tunnel, now in progress, is completed. "If the traffic is the problem, then there is no need for the relocation," she said.
Ahmed El-Sawi, head of an archaeological committee attached to the cabinet, is of the opinion that dividing the museum's Islamic collection will cause its historical value to drop. "These artefacts have to be displayed as one collection, like the Tutankhamun collection at the Egyptian Museum," he said. "This adds to their beauty, richness and importance."
El-Sawi said that "such decisions should not be taken hastily. The issue needs to be well examined before a decision is made."
A museum official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the controversy was not new. It began last year when a tentative decision was taken to relocate the collection of the Islamic Museum to a new museum that will be built over five feddans in the Fustat area of Old Cairo. When Islamic archaeologists rejected the idea, the official said, they were told that the new museum would be used only for displaying artefacts stored in the basement of the Islamic Museum. Pharaonic and Coptic items would also be exhibited.
This year, the official said, a decision was taken to pack 180,000 Islamic antiques in preparation for moving them to the Citadel area. But the museum inspectors, who are responsible for the artefacts, will not begin the task until they have written orders from the minister of culture or the secretary-general of the SCA.
Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary-general of the SCA, confirmed that the Islamic collection would not be relocated until a suitable and secure building had been prepared in the Citadel area.
Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly that the artefacts were only being moved from the museum's basement to the stores to protect them against water leakage.
As for complaints that dozens of Islamic masterpieces were being removed in order to install an air-conditioning system, Hosni said that "air-conditioning is not something that will affect the museum's structure, but it will protect the objects against heat, humidity and the breath of visitors."
Hosni pointed out that air-conditioning is used in many museums worldwide. "Even in Egypt, it has been used in both the Nubia Museum and the Mummification Museum, proving its necessity," he said.
Hosni also denied that the ministry was planning to demolish the Islamic Museum's garden, describing it as an "open-air museum for Islamic art". "What we want to do is to construct an underground parking structure beneath the garden, and I think that is permissible," he said.
Two weeks earlier, in a move aimed at stopping any possible relocation, several writers and professors of archaeology filed a complaint with Prosecutor-General Ragaa El-Arabi. Hosni described the complaint as part of a long-running campaign against him. He argued that because the museum is located in a traffic-congested area, tourist buses have great difficulty reaching it, while the Citadel area is easily accessible.
