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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Plain Talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
In a few days I'll be on my way to New York to give a talk at the Dahesh Museum of Art on 5th Avenue. This is the only Arab Museum in New York, possibly in the US, and it is distinguished by the extent and quality of its collection of academic art. Currently the museum is mounting an exhibition -- A Distant Muse: Orientalist Works from the Dahesh Museum of Art.
It is on the occasion of the exhibition that I have been invited to speak, and I will address what I call "neo-Orientalism". Orientalism, as we know, has preoccupied a number of researchers and historians who have tried to explain this 19th century phenomenon. In his classic Orientalism Edward Said gives a comprehensive description of the phenomena. It is, he writes, "a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European western experience."
Before talking about neo-Orientalism I intend to present some landmarks in the development of this practice. The first name that springs to mind is Edward William Lane and his famous book, Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians, first published in 1836, and his Description of Egypt, which Lane based on his research in Egypt between 1825 and 1828, recently published by the American in University Press.
Edward Lane was not the only member of his family who fell under the spell of Egypt. His sister Sofia Lane Poole wrote The Harem of Mohamed Aly, a description of that mysterious world which was not open to men. Then there was Lane's nephew, Stanley Lane Poole, with his encyclopaedic Cairo: Sketches of its history, monuments, and social life.
Innumerable visitors followed, producing myriads of books on Egypt, including Harriet Martineau, Lady Duff Gordon, Florence Nightingale and others. That was a phase when Egypt was, more or less, first discovered.
Edward Said says, rightly, that these writers were addressing their own people. That was the case at that time, but their books are now read widely by Egyptians. What is more they have become valuable records of an Egypt long gone.
I claim that there are two kinds of neo-Orientalism, one undertaken by specialists in the field of history and archaeology, Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic. To give a few examples from the books published by the American University in Cairo Press: In the House of Mohamed Ali, The Mysterious Fayoum Portraits, The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, The Secret Life of the Sphinx, Islamic Architecture, The Lost Tomb, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity and others.
Then there are the books that deal with specific current issues. These include titles like Rural Labour Movements in Egypt and their Impact on the State, Directions of Change in Rural Egypt, Economic Policy Reform in Egypt, Political Islam, Local Government in Egypt and others. This kind of book can be important in helping to understand Egypt and its problems.
One can discern a continuous interest in Egypt as one generation of Orientalists follows another. An important feature of the neo-Orientalists is their youth. There is Cairo: The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck. It is a richly textured biography which combines a sweeping timescale with a keen eye for telling detail. It traces the life of Cairo from birth -- the ancient Egyptians believed creation itself took place there -- through the heights of medieval splendour and on to the present time. The book is rightly described as a cultural excavation of one of the world's great cities.
Then there is young Anthony Sattin with his two books Lifting the Veil and The Shadow of the Pharaohs. The first gives the history of the British in Egypt while the second traces many superstitions in Upper Egypt back to the Pharaohs.
Egypt, it seems, continues to attract 'Orientalists' who are interested mainly in research and study.
