10 - 16 May 2001
Issue No.533
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 10 - 16 May 2001 Issue No.533 |
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New coffers for
old treasures
The new tourist bazaar in Al-Fustat is an attempt to revive traditional crafts and attract more visitors to Old Cairo. Rehab Saad toured the complex to see what it had to offer, but found the plan still incomplete
Who said tourism was only geared to ancient monuments and sunny beaches? Tourists pursue as many different interests on holiday as they do at home, and are subject to the same number of whims.
The Al-Fustat bazaar could become a showcase for locally produced crafts, promoting social and economic development in the area.
Photos: Ahmed Abdel-Razeq and Doaa Abou Se'da
Every traveller has his or her preference for passing time on R and R, but arts, traditionally, come near the top of the list. Since the middle of the 20th century the most popular destinations for culture vultures have been Paris, London, Vienna, New York and the whole of Italy. The theatres of London and Broadway, Paris art exhibitions and such fringe festivals as Edinburgh and Arles are tourist magnets, and money-spinners for the hosts.
Egypt wants to catch up -- to establish a reputation for cultural festivals and exhibitions and, above all, for its traditional crafts. Only Egypt has so much that is unique: Khiyamiyya (tent making), mashrabiya (woodwork), copper and silver metalwork, textiles, ceramics and last, but by no means least, its galabiyas (traditional robes). No wonder that many visitors to Cairo insist on including a visit to the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar on their tour, evidence that the fame of Egypt's traditional crafts have fans far and wide.
To promote this field to 21st century travellers the Ministry of Tourism is establishing a new centre for shopping in Fustat, south of central Cairo. Appropriately called the Al-Fustat tourist bazaar, and situated in one of the most historically important areas of the city, the bazaar will offer a vast array of traditional crafts on permanent exhibition, and is expected to become a major tourist attraction.
The domed bazaar is located near Amr Ibn Al-As mosque, close to the new bus station. It has been designed by architects with the help of professors of Islamic history inspired by elements of traditional Egyptian architecture. With large open courtyards and arches, adorned with lanterns and other decorative elements such as stone and wooden carvings and iron work, the bazaar has 54 shops, 39 of which have already opened in the first phase of the project. The remaining 15 will open later, in addition to a cafeteria and a restaurant.
Visitors to the new bazaar will soon realise that this is a real souq (bazaar) of the traditional order, with its crooked alleyways, arched corridors and small shops, crowded together and each exhibiting an array of attractive items. But the display is only a precursor of the permanent bazaar yet to come. And so far, there is only one snag: how to determine the criteria by which artists will be selected to display their crafts in the bazaar has not yet been established. Nor is it known whether the shops will be owned by the artists, whether there will be permanent artists, or even whether the bazaar will only open for temporary exhibitions.
The site was not selected haphazardly. The bazaar stands on the site of an ancient commercial centre famous for its pottery even as far back as the eighth and ninth centuries. Revitalising the area is an important move that businessmen in the tourist industry believe will boost tourist movement to the area.
"After touring historical Old Cairo, a traveller could end by visiting the new bazaar both to buy stuff and to have an overview of the diversity of Egyptian traditional arts," travel agent Mohamed Mursi said.
To launch the permanent exhibition, the Ministry of Tourism staged two major events in the Al-Fustat bazaar. The first, the Egyptian Creative Arts & Crafts Caravan, was organised by the Egyptian Design Centre in cooperation with the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, the Red Sea and South Sinai. The second was an art exhibition held on the sidelines of the French festival, "Les Français aiment Le Caire." At both events, works of art and traditional Egyptian crafts were displayed, and both were highly lauded by local and foreign visitors.
The caravan's president, artist Issak Azmy, is enthusiastic about the project. "The Egyptian Creative Arts & Crafts Caravan aims at reviving Egypt's forgotten treasures and encouraging its exportation to the rest of the world," he said. "We realised that the best place to start our caravan, before it moves to the other governorates, would be here in Al-Fustat, in the new bazaar in this historic area of Old Cairo. Here are relics of the three monotheistic religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and this reflects Egypt's spirit of tolerance towards different cultures and religious beliefs."
Stressing the uniqueness of the chosen site, Azmy urged the officials of the caravan to gather together as vast an array of artwork and crafts as possible, representing a wide variety of Egyptian creativity. "Tourists are enthusiastic about the works of contemporary Egyptian artists as well as traditional crafts, especially since so much of the latter has disappeared from most countries around the world. They were replaced, in the post-industrial era, by high tech. and the production of plastic and aluminum," Azmy said. "Luckily our craftsmen are still holding their own, especially in traditional crafts such as leather production, woodwork, Islamic artifacts, copper work, hand-blown glass and even the traditional robes that inspired international dress designers like Nina Ricci, Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s and 1960s. As a matter of fact, these designers were inspired by the Egyptian head-dress of our women, as well as her loose galabiya. The 1,000-button galabiya of Siwan women captured their attention."
In a spirit of confidence, and delighted by the impact of the new bazaar at its inauguration, Azmy anticipated "thousands of travellers visiting Old Cairo and filling the alleyways of the newly-born bazaar." He believes, however, that the media could play a bigger role in acquainting people with the new attraction. "The bazaar should be promoted alongside the Pharaonic temples, the Egyptian Museum, the pyramids, the Khan Al-Khalili and other attractions," he said. A catalogue in at least six languages, with information on all the crafts on display, would not go amiss, added Azmy. Such a catalogue could be distributed in Egyptian tourist offices abroad. Azmy also advocates the making of a documentary film to be screened at international conferences and exhibitions in Europe, Canada and the USA.
According to Mona Zakariya, an engineer with the Old Cairo development project, affiliated to the Ministry of Tourism, the new bazaar will upgrade the entire area. "We did not plan to establish just a mall with shops displaying and selling their products. We have designed this bazaar with the people of the area in mind, to help upgrade their quarter and provide more job opportunities. This is important for us. The Al-Fustat bazaar targets not only travellers, but locals as well."
Zakariya mentioned the need for Egyptians to take pride in their crafts and help revive the area, "especially at night." She pointed out that Cairo does not need another Khan Al-Khalili, which attracts mostly tourists. "We need a place where Egyptian traditional crafts can actively be revived and exported to different countries of the world; crafts that can be used by the Egyptians themselves and which are highly esteemed by foreigners." She believes it is a pity that, in some shops in Egypt, one can see imported pottery on shelves which display nothing produced locally.
Local industries should be encouraged, which would provide people with job opportunities. "This is the kind of development that we need now in our country," she said. "We should do all we can to preserve traditional crafts before it is too late. They could provide the nucleus for small industries that could be of great benefit to people."
The craft revival in the Al-Fustat tourist bazaar is but one component of a far larger and more comprehensive project, according to Mamdouh El-Beltagui, the Minister of Tourism. At last week's inauguration he said there was a comprehensive plan to develop Old Cairo into a religious complex with the aim of achieving social, economic and constructional development in the area, in order to enhance tourist opportunities. "That is our aim," El-Beltagui said.
Creative Arts and Crafts Caravan President Issak Azmy
Two years ago the Ministry of Tourism launched a promising project to commemorate the journey of the Holy Family in Egypt 2000 years ago by developing the sites Jesus, Mary and Joseph passed on their flight from Palestine. Old Cairo was one of their most famous destinations, and the ministry consequently decided to allocate LE15 million to develop it as a major attraction for travellers wishing to tour Egypt in the footsteps of the Holy Family.
"No one ever believed that Old Cairo could be so developed. It was a dream," Zakariya said. "But Old Cairo is like Jerusalem, a holy city in which everything should be preserved. At the beginning of the project we debated whether the buildings alone should be restored, or whether to upgrade the whole area: buildings, people and activities. We decided that the area was worthy of the greatest attention and a massive development project was put into action."
Shabby plaster walls have been refaced with rough stone; houses and shops in need of repair are being renovated; and the walls of the Greek Orthodox cemetery have been suitably restored.
"About 350 houses and 80 shops were renovated and repainted inside and out, with care to maintain the historical aura of the area by adding mashrabiya windows and providing old lanterns for adornment," El-Beltagui said. "All the main streets have been upgraded, a new police station built, the Metro station and the local Youth Centre repaired and decorated, a new bus station and a Fire Station established. We also started to work on the pottery village extending over three feddans, and that will include 36 environmentally-friendly pottery factories."
How the new Al-Fustat bazaar can best be marketed remains an issue.
The key questions of the bazaar's future, El-Beltagui says, will shortly be resolved. "There are two options in regard to operating this bazaar. Either we can establish a special fund and a board of trustees affiliated to the Tourist Development Authority (TDA) to run the place and promote it, or we can assign one of the private sector tourist development companies to market it abroad, thus avoiding any governmental obstacles." El-Beltagui stressed that this would not contradict the object of the bazaar, which is to support artists and talented craftsmen, especially those who are short of capital, to display their work.
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