Most Awesome Guide Ever
June 30, 2009
I am fully prepared to admit that I am a bad person for this, but today I ran into a guy that just really tickled me. He was useful in that he got me into a couple of sites where there was restoration going on.. but then in the middle of taking me through a house he launched into a disquisition on Sufi dance. I immediately got my camera out, even as I was confused as to why we were talking about Sufi dancing.
To understand why I find this video funny, it's important to understand the dynamic between guide and tourist. Every second that this guy is dancing, he's also thinking: big tip, big tip. His job is to add up lots of little things that allow him to make a claim that he gave substantial time and effort to my tour. An animated Sufi dance performance weighs heavily on his side. My job is to limit his assumption of little extras (like carrying my bag) that let him inflate his claim at the end. We both know that a reckoning is coming.. and we are angling for it. Now the dancing caught me off-guard, because, rationally speaking, I knew this was something to stop, since it had nothing to do with what stood front of us. But I was so amused and surprised by this moment, that I let it pass.. and even filmed it! I knew I would pay dearly.
Reconstructing how the Sufi dancing entered our conversation, I believe it had something to do with Sultan Qaitbay and his nightly choosing of one of his four wives. There were four wives, just as there were four mashrabiyyas in this room. The Sultan would sit and each wife would do a Sufi dance.. and one of them he would choose to be his bed companion for the night.
I had reason to doubt this story on a whole bunch of levels, but like much of the work of tour guides, it was best understood as a form of storytelling. Doesn't it just sound like the 1,001 Nights? And this is before the story about the tunnel from underneath this palace up to the citadel.
This guide also had apocryphal stories about Barack Obama's itinerary in Egypt. He had Obama sight-seeing not only at Sultan Hasan Mosque, but also at a fairly unknown Turkish mosque for seven minutes.. where Obama made a joke about having only one wife! The Turkish Mosque in question was on our itinerary today, as you might have guessed.. and it was way too dusty to have been recently visited by Obama. But again, the storytelling is the point. And Egyptians are great at this art. I could hear how Obama's trip would soon be amplified by the various tellers of stories in this city.
Dreamland!
June 29, 2009
One central trend in the growth of contemporary Cairo is the movement of cultural institutions and elite residences far out into the barren desert. Of course, once the elite arrive the desert does not remain barren, but magically turns green! This outward shift is evident in the new campus of the American University in Cairo, the construction of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, and in numerous elite housing developments. One of these housing developments is the place called "Dreamland." It has an interesting web presence that allowed me to use it as an example of the changes of globalization in my Cairo class. Now that I am back in Egypt I've been hell-bent on getting here.
The freeway featured a couple of Arabic signs for Dreamland.. the one I got a picture of was in Giza near the pyramids and it pointed to Dreamland six kilometers ahead. The Arabic writing tells you that this is not primarily a tourist destination, but a site for elite Egyptians and others from the Middle East. Now, if one is six kilometers further into the desert from the pyramids, one is in truly barren land. And this is the way things looked for a while:
Not the stuff that dreams are made of.. according to me. But up on that ridge you can see palm trees, and that's a hint of what is to come. I wish I knew where and how the water got out to Dreamland and other such communities. The only possible source is the Nile, but from what is this water taken away to make all this possible?
I almost got bounced from my initial experience of Dreamland. An entrance guard did not let my taxi in since we had no definite place to go. He directed us to "Dream Park".. which is a cinema and amusement park open to everyone. As with many things in Egypt, this amusement park does not really start moving until we get toward evening.. and it was mostly empty when I was there. But I came across this sign for a cafe: the Naguib Mahfouz cafe.
This evocation of central Cairo in a place as far removed as possible from central Cairo is truly weird. Although the impulse certainly has parallels in the US with versions of "mainstreet" in Disneyland.. etc. Naguib Mahfouz set out "classic" Cairo in his descriptions of alley life, and those alleys are the "mainstreets" of Egypt. So they are mimicked out here in the desert.
My taxi driver did manage to get us into Dreamland proper. We found a side road that went from the amusement park directly into the extensive housing project. I took lots of photos from the window of the taxi.. thinking that if I got out with camera in hand someone would stop me before long. There appeared to be two major models for living here. One was an apartment in a vaguely Arabic-style complex (above), while the other was life in a single family villa (below).
With the exception of diplomats and a few other figures, nobody in Cairo lives in single family homes. Here in Dreamland it's possible. That is a clue to the appeal: this is a largely American way of life constructed with eastern motifs and themes. Unfortunately the waste of fresh water and gas that is assumed for this lifestyle is also deeply American.
Spiritual needs were also taken into consideration in the planning of Dreamland. We passed three mosques, each one different in style. This one had the most striking minarets. Nobody who lives here need have a bad conscience. It is all in accord with God and his book. I should also add that there is a well-watered golf course in Dreamland. This attempt at an ideal community aligns Dreamland with similar attempts in the US, the most famous being Celebration, Florida (see Wikipedia article here).
I have a pretty visceral dislike for these types of communities. They are exclusive and inauthentic. They are parasitic on culture. Their emphasis on what is "safe" leads to a sterilized version of the world. But like it or not, Dreamland and places like it are growing in popularity.. at least that is what I judge from the massive and continuing building out here. In America it is possible to see "Celebration" as a weird and sort of scary experiment. In Egypt Dreamland is a representation of the dream land that is being constructed by elites in the region.
The world Dreamland ignores is on view throughout the ride to the desert. Former agricultural villages have been made into rows of unfinished red brick apartment buildings. These extend as far as the Nile valley.. they house the very poor.
This is nobody's dreamland:
Landing at Bulaq in 1800
June 29, 2009
In the French Description de l'Egypte, put together from the work of the scholars who accompanied Napoleon during his time in Egypt from 1798-1801, we get a beautiful plate of the Sinan Pasha mosque in Bulaq. Since Bulaq was the Nile port for Cairo, it was a visual marker for arrival at Cairo. I had never visited this mosque, so today I walked over to it. It is just a little north of the point where the 26th October Bridge connects to Cairo east of the Nile. In fact, I could make out the mosque from the bridge itself:
There it is, sitting behind a large, newish Coptic church. It's a distinctive mosque, with its Turkish style minaret and impressive central dome. But where it once greeted visitors to Cairo as they stepped off the boat, it's now tucked well back into the city. By comparing the image from around 1800 with this one now, you can get a sense of how the Nile bed has shifted slightly.
Getting closer to the mosque, I found it surrounded by cars:
I've seen old pictures of mosques in what is now "Islamic Cairo" that look a lot like this.. i.e. they are surrounded by parked cars and seemingly isolated from potential visitors. I got the sense that Sinan Pasha is not on many itineraries. The neighborhood is filled with workshops (welding, metalwork) and a popular clothing market. I could see various structural elements that were old, but the neighborhood could hardly be called "historic Bulaq".. that's gone. What's left is this single building.. and one other fairly early mosque. As is the fate with many historic buildings, they become islands in their shifting landscape.
As you can see, the inside of the mosque is quite beautiful. Note especially the rail and walkway that goes around the dome. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. The decorations moving in a band around the mid point of the building are also nice.. colored windows and carved figures echoing each other as they alternate. The floral pattern is 100% Ottoman.. in fact, to spot an Ottoman building or addition all you need to look for are floral motifs.
Sadly, this Ottoman style will almost certainly be part of what keeps this mosque from getting any real refurbishment. Looking backwards, the Ottoman time is widely seen as a time of colonization, and buildings commissioned by them tend not to get high priority. That is a reality I've noticed in many other countries: Greece, Crete, Bulgaria, Syria.. Another strike this mosque has going against it is that it is located so far outside the tourist zone for Islamic Cairo. But in a way that should also be its central claim to preservation: this is a historical area that is in danger of totally disappearing.
I will end this post with a quick look to the Nile riverscape as it can be seen today. This is a look back toward Zamalek, and you can see the Marriott and then a series of apartment buildings overlooking the Nile. Boats still ply the Nile, but clearly that is secondary to automobile traffic.. which is extensive even up to the edge of the Nile.
Archeology of Shopping
June 28, 2009
Walking along Mousky Street away from Islamic Cairo I loved the lively crowds. I knew that this street had been a pedestrian thoroughfare for quite some time. It's difficult to follow Mousky all the way to Ezbekiyya these days, but once Ezbekiyya was the transition from traditional Cairo to modern Cairo and its Parisian pretensions. As I walked through this or that popular market.. and saw the shop windows and signs.. I wondered if anyone has a good line on the archeology of all this popular shopping stuff.
For example this scene:
Looking more closely I see some red brick up above and that should mark out this building as fairly recent. But how far back do window displays in this part of Cairo go? And is there any well-preserved store from the 40s or 50s in this area? Cairo is filled with things that nobody ever writes down or takes note of.
That's got to be an old sign.. with its old fashioned light bulbs and "Italian" clothes. But again, I have no way to date something like this.. and I'm not sure anyone else does either except by asking around locally for information.
At one point I came across a real showman selling pants and shirts that he dramatically pulled from their plastic coverings. He was doing a brisk business. This is well worth a watch to catch some of the liveliness of Cairo popular markets:
Welcome to Fatimid Land!
June 28, 2009
For years I've known that a re-working of the central area of Islamic Cairo was coming. I've seen it referenced with different names, one of which is "Fatimid Land" since this area was the center of that dynasty's capital. The Fatimid street Bayn al-Qasrayn ("Between the Palaces") eventually lost the palaces that make sense of its name, but within their structural footprint later Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Turkish rulers built lavish mosques and madrasas. The current project by the Supreme Council of Antiquities is to get this whole area tourist friendly. Not an easy task since the area was colonized by the very poor since 1950 or so.. and making it tourist ready means getting rid of these poor. Let's note the strategies for presenting this area to tourists:
1. benches
Benches are going up everywhere! I always find these humorous because they are such unnatural additions to the cityscape of Cairo. It's fascinating to watch how they go unused by anyone.. except perhaps a white clad security guy who has to be there anyway. As you walk around popular areas of Cairo you will never see a bench on a public street. The benches here in Fatimid land are for tourists.. obviously.. who well know how to make use of them.
What is it about a bench that seems so natural and desirable to anyone growing up in America, but which is odd within Egyptian culture? My idea is that we can see in this question another way in which different notions of private and public make a material difference in the layout of a city.
A bench along a public street in America represents the possibility of private space within public place. When I sit down on a bench along Main Street in some generic American city, I am for a moment creating a private world. In Egyptian culture I sense a definite line between these two spheres.. and difficulty in creating that kind of private bubble. Now there are parks here in Cairo with lots of benches.. but these are private parks.. i.e. where the private world is encouraged. The street is a public zone that one uses to finish one's work and move on to a private space as quickly as possible. The idea of a public bench is thus strange.
2. paved streets
This is a scene from in front of the Mosque of Sultan Qala'un. Three years ago when I was here this area was being dug up and the mosque was covered in scaffolding for refurbishment. The mosque looks beautiful now and a nicely curving paved street has been added. You can also see the white security booth sitting guard. As I walked down the street from this point it was strangely empty.. and of course I ran into all those benches lining the road.
Again the choice has been made to pamper tourists. This road is comfortable and allows the medieval mosques to show themselves to good effect. They also cancel out what used to be one of the first things a visitor noticed: how narrow and crowded the streets are as one comes into Cairo. As the central market street, this street would not have been quite as narrow as the side streets, but it was not a place for an easy stroll. These mosques were imagined as being situated in a tight, crowded, and above all commercial area. The commerce is still present.. if by that one means tourist goodies like water pipes and jewelry, but real Egyptian life has moved elsewhere. That has always been the central critique of the models for this area: they make no attempt to preserve the life that flowed in and around these beautiful buildings.
3. green space
I am the last person to complain about green space. And I took a seat under the shade of these trees just this afternoon. But such green space was not a priority in historic Cairo.. and its introduction into the city now is difficult to justify. There was green space outside the city toward the Nile.. and a medieval Cairene could walk in that direction. But the concept of a public urban "park" as we know it would just not have computed for medieval Egyptians. This again goes back to stark public/private divisions. Also, the place of the park was more or less filled by the mosque, which was open and allowed easy escape from the crowded city. Much of what we in America associate with a public park is wrapped up in the medieval mosque (although such public space was only for men).
Tracts Inside al-Azhar
June 27, 2009
Three years ago I covered in a more formal way the Mosque of al-Azhar (see here). This time I was especially paying attention to any ephemera that I might find in the mosque. I noticed an odd stand off to the far side of the interior part of the mosque:
It was a booth of some kind.. and a young guy was sitting next to it. Upon closer approach I could see that it was a small booth for proselytizing:
In the upper left corner you see the notice: "no tips".. so the books are free and there will not even be a plea for baksheesh! Then there is the tantalizing question: "What is its secret?" Islam is growing fast and here you can learn why everyone everywhere is joining up. One easily understands the impulse behind this. Al-Azhar is a much-visited site and that presents an opportunity to tell people about Islam.. and perhaps get someone interested in learning more.
As soon as I approached this booth the young guy stood up and asked me where I was from and started pulling out tract after tract of stuff for me to read. Here are the titles of what he gave me:
A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam
The Qur'an and Modern Science: Compatible or Incompatible?
I am a Muslim
Women in Islam versus Women in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition
The Concept of God in Islam
Muhammad the Messenger of Allah
The Life of the Prophet Muhammad (DVD)
So yes, it was quite a stack of tracts.
I might have refused them and saved some paper, but I was curious how al-Azhar would represent Islam. In other words, out of a hundred possible approaches, what would be the chosen approach here at al-Azhar? With this question in mind I asked the young guy which of these books he would recommend I start with, and he pointed to A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam.
It turns out that this tract is available online in its totality (here). Its basic task is to develop a comprehensive argument as to why Islam should be accepted by any reasonable person. Unfortunately it fails utterly in that task because of its insistence on linking scientific facts to obscure Quranic expressions. This leads to absurdities such as the notion that God threatens to take a sinner "by his lying sinful forehead" because the prefrontal area of the brain is where plans and language develop. Another such example is in the Qur'an's language about the unborn foetus. At one point the Qur'an apparently uses the term mudghah which means "chewed substance." The book then provides the following hilarious picture:
That is a scientifically labeled picture of a foetus lined up with a piece of gum that has been chewed and has one clear line of teeth imprints left in it.
This whole approach to thinking about the Qur'an is disconcertingly common. It can be found all over the web and I would just invite you to examine the following video clip from a series entitled "Miracle of Qur'an" (7 parts):
There is much that the Qur'an has to offer the world today, but trying to make it into a science textbook is a misstep. Tariq Ramadan situates the Qur'an as a text that sets meaning and value in the midst of a technically advanced but hollow world. That allows the Qur'an to gain a spiritual and moral position and does not force it to address contemporary scientific discoveries.
But despite my sense that this scientific proof approach is the wrong way to go.. it is nevertheless immensely popular in the Middle East.. and I am sure more broadly. This and other tracts have been translated into numerous languages:
But this is not a type of apologetic literature that is really talking with the outside world (what the best apologetic literature does). It is instead a kind of fantasy dialogue with the outside world, adopting the forms of secular authority (emphasis on Dr.s and institutions) but sharing nothing of the process of inquiry. I would love to see a more challenging interpretation of the Qur'an take root.. and become what visitors are confronted with upon visiting a-Azhar. As Tariq Ramadan has shown, the Qur'an really can be a challenge to modern society. But not in this form.
Sermons on Tape
June 27, 2009
Walking around al-Azhar mosque I came across a small store that sold tapes and CDs of sermons or readings from the Qur'an. In the video clip above I try to give a sense of the store and its stacks of sermon tapes. In the background you can see the stone wall that is the back of al-Azhar. I had struck up a conversation with the young guy manning the store, and he allowed me to take some pictures. He also put in a sermon by a popular preacher, Shaykh Abd al-Hamid Kishk. This is a sermon on the hijab, but somehow it manages to mention the Jews (yahud) a couple of times in this brief selection.
In understanding the contemporary Islamic world it is important to see a shadow globalization at work. The globalization that we know is connected to McDonalds and the Internet, but at the same time there is a spread of a homogenized and popualar version of fundamentalist Islam. This shadow globalization is spread by technology, but often not the technology that is most current. The presence in this video of a wall of tapes is an example of this. I don't even have a tape player any more! I wil need to talk to the tech people at Lawrence to borrow a tape player if I am going to listen to the two tapes I bought here.
Lots has been made of the ability of Islamic terrorists to make use of the Internet.. and for networking and communication that is undoubtedly important. But less is made of the ability of religious values and ideas to travel in our world by non-Internet means.. and the audio cassette is a great example of how this works.
A work I am hoping to go through this summer is The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics by Charles Hirschkind.. whose title promises that the book will cover some of this ground.
The Mosque of Husayn
June 26, 2009
The Mosque of Husayn is the spiritual heart of Cairo. Husayn was the grandson of Muhammad and is venerated by the Shi'as. Egyptian Muslims, though, are Sunni. So what's the deal with Husayn here in Cairo? It all goes back to the Fatimids who founded Cairo and ruled it from 969-1171 AD. The Fatimids were Shi'as (Isma'ilis, to be exact) and although their brand of Islam did not catch on, they established the popular sacred landscape of Cairo. When Salah al-Din took over leadership of Cairo in 1171 AD he did not tear down the Shi'a shrines, but simply incorporated them into the new Sunni system. So Husayn stayed and to our own time is a center of popular piety.
It's impossible to read much in the way of Egyptian literature without running into this mosque. In Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz there are some beautiful descriptions of the experience of visiting the mosque of Husayn. The following runs through the mind of the youth Kamal:
Although his high regard for al-Husayn... derived from al-Husayn's relationship to his grandfather, the Prophet, Kamal's knowledge of the prophet had not provided him with what he knew of about al-Husayn and the events of his life, nor did it explain the way his soul always hungered to have the saga of al-Husayn repeated, so he could draw from it the finest stories and the deepest faith. [53]
See how Mahfouz specifies that Kamal's devotion stems from his relationship to the prophet.. and not from his position as Imam, as the Shi'as would have it. But while technically orthodox in his veneration, Kamal's devotion also takes on a life of its own.
The importance of this shrine is clear even in 1183 when the Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr makes his visit to this shrine the center of his account of Cairo. The medieval shrine is now gone.. and what remains is decidedly modern.. but this is no recently established spiritual center.
The final video below is quite funny. I track a young guy filming himself at the mosque of Husayn. He is especially interested in getting a video of himself praying within the shrine.
It was a reminder to me of the way technology is quickly incorporated into religious practices. I am using my tiny Flip video camera to observe, but for pilgrims it takes a more positive role.
Following the Water in al-Ghuriyya
June 26, 2009
Water is an essential concern for a large city in a dry climate. It's true that because of the water table you can dig almost anywhere in the Nile valley and get water pretty quickly. But that kind of well water is bad tasting and unpotable. So water had to be transported from the Nile to Cairo (a distance of a couple of miles since the old city was not right on the river). The classic Islamic city distributed water by means of a network of sabils, where water would be distributed to all free of cost. This kind of water charity was considered a good work, and so those constructing a madrasa or mosque would often incorporate a public sabil for water. These could be quite elaborate and one runs into them all over the place in the old city.
Walking through the al-Ghuriyya complex (like lots of later medieval structures it was a multi-use complex that included a mosque, madrasa, Sufi monastery, sabil, Quran school, mausoleum, etc...), I got an unsually clear picture of how the water system worked. We can begin with the underground cistern:
Obviously that cistern would hold a lot of water. I had no idea that the cisterns serving a sabil could be so large. There were a couple of entrances where the water could enter.. and I believe most of the water would have been brought on the backs of camels from the Nile.
The water was raised from the cistern by means of a bucket system.. and this was the opening that gave access. Once the water arrived at the surface it was poured into a large holding tub. From there the water ran down a slanted marble board.
There at the top you can see where the water overflowed and cascaded down the grooved board. This is a natural way to chill water, although I am not exactly sure of the physics of that. But like many things in the medieval Islamic city, it worked. The water would then pool at the bottom on an inlaid small basin.
From that small basin the water flowed to three other marble basins located in front of grated windows. It is from here that the water was given out to passers-by. You can see how the whole process, since it was a pious bequest by the wealthy elite, was much more than a simple pragmatic affair, but touched with architectural elegance.
Looking out those iron grates now you just see crowded al-Azhar Street.. with its taxis and constant noise. But within the historic city these sabils would have served a local and tightly knit neighborhood.
Notes on Cairo's Landscape
June 25, 2009
A dusty part of most visits to a mosque is the ascent to the roof and then up to the top of the minaret. It' always a narrow and circular staircase, and finally you step out onto a view of the city. I did this three times today. From one of these stops I took a panoramic video. One thing you will notice is the centrality of the minarets in the picture. There is nothing else, really, by which to orient yourself as you look out on the landscape. This is not quite true if you look toward the downtown where there are massive hotels and such, but in the old section of town it's the minarets of the mosques that mark space and neighborhoods.
Of course this state of affairs represents symbolic priorities from several centuries back.. and it's the heart of what I teach as the Islamic city of Cairo. In reading a landscape you can almost take to heart the biblical concept: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (or something like that). Just broaden it out a little: a culture's monuments will be a clue to its values. In the United States it's of course the corporate landscape that dominates.. and something similar could be said about globalized Cairo.
Next I want to look down at the street below. What we see in this video is al-Azhar Street as it passes al-Ghuriyya and al-Azhar. You can see what a thoroughfare it has become. Also note how pedestrians have to cross either by the bridge or an underground passage a little farther down. This is the heart of old Cairo so it might seem odd to find this busy wide street. And it should seem odd! This was a destructive incursion into the old city.. and much was torn down to make way for it and the flyway that brings you here.
Every visitor to the old city should imagine what it would be like without this busy road.. when a walk from al-Azhar to the Mosque of Husayn did not mean walking underground or getting called to a tourist stand. The constant noise would also not be present. The difference really came home to me when I reflected on the autobiography of Taha Hussein.. especially the second book on his education at al-Azhar. The apartment where he stayed and the easy walk to a-Azhar.. along with the simple sounds of life at the beginning of the last century.. make it clear just how different the experience once was.
This next video clip was taken from the ground level and watches people move within a local market for clothes. That minaret standing behind everything is that of the mosque al-Ghuriyya. These streets have always been home to vibrant markets (although the actual goods on sale now are not traditional in any way). The connection of Islam with business is long established. In fact all these mosques depended on businesses for their revenue. It was not like Christian churches where the salary for the pastor and upkeep of the church is paid by the tithes of the congregation. All the funds for a mosque came from land donated by a founder.. and the shops, apartments, or produce of that donated land went year after year for the upkeep of the mosque. This is the waqf system.. and it means that simply by purchasing goods in the market you are ultimately supporting the whole city system. That concept is at the heart of the Islamic city.
Buildings Fall Apart
June 24, 2009
Walking through the historic sections of Cairo the sense of structural decay is overwhelming. Old stuff is just moldering into non-existence. There now seems to be a lot of resources going into repairing the smaller medieval mosques, but the structures around those mosques will not be here long.
Having read Edward William Lane and Naguib Mahfouz describing the bustling life of old Cairo, I am always on the lookout for that older world. Mostly it's not here. Scenes like the following dominate the experience of old Cairo:
That building on the left is the opposite of historic.. even though this is right in the middle of old Cairo. Its naked cement infrastructure is filled in with red bricks. This is the style of much building for the poor in Egypt.. you see it in every small town. The shame is that this building style has come to prevail in old Cairo as well. The smaller building to the right is also an obviously modern one.. although a big step forward in quality. The presence of these buildings means that historic structure that once were here have disappeared.
Exploring in the old city I came across this row of houses. It was an amazing sight.. and a taste of what housing in the old city must have been like 75 years ago. I am now reading Palace Walk by Mahfouz, and many of the events of the novel are made clear by thinking of houses that look about like this. (I mean the closeness of Fahmy to the neighbor girl when they are on the roof and the ability of Aisha to see onto the street from the window grills.) These houses are hardly "medieval".. but they do testify to a time when the old city was still a center for money and prestige.. and before it was all swamped by poverty.
These houses too will disappear before long. The government is interested in its fantasy version of historic Cairo and not in preserving the "lived" city. Seeing this decay is a lesson in life: all things pass and change.
Two Superficial Changes in Cairo
June 24, 2009
There are a couple of changes in Egypt that are immediately apparent. One surprise was being given a couple of these two-tone coins as change. They are one Egyptian pound coins, so they are about the equivalent of an American quarter.. but the relative value is misleading since the price for many things is much less. It used to be that a paper bill was the main unit of exchange.. and I was forever stockpiling rolls of small bills for taxi fares. Now I am beginning to pile up these small coins.
The decorative style is consistent with the bills. On the paper bills one side carries a depiction of something related to ancient Egypt and the other side carries an image of something Islamic. The coin has no images on the Arabic side, but that in itself is in alignment with early Islamic coinage, which has just Arabic lettering. One real symbolic improvement is that the English is on the same side as the Arabic writing.. thus stepping a little clear of the language dualism that prevails on all bills (ancient Egypt=English; Islam=Arabic).
A second change is equally noticeable, and that is the rate at which people mention Obama and "good" as soon as I say I am from America. This has happened several times already. Objectively there is much to complain about from Obama in terms of his failure to dismantle Bush policies, but he has succeeded wildly in changing the tone of the American voice abroad. In some ways this is just "optics".. as they say now. But optics is also part of the job of being president.. and if you fail at it you have made the world less safe for your citizens.
So I made a video of an old guy who was gate keeper to a mosque that is being renovated. He wanted bakshish.. and as we talked he launched into a funny pro-Obama anti-Bush tirade in Arabic. He was very animated and I asked him to talk to me on camera and that I would pay him a couple of pounds. He liked the idea a lot.. and I did not have to think about it as bakshish. But when I turned on the camera he froze up! Only toward the end do you see some of his animation. But he stands here as an example of common attitudes toward Obama. It's nice to have everyone loving my president!
Back in Mubarak Land
June 23, 2009
Re-entry into Cairo is daunting. The city is just so big. It makes me want to forget about my project of photographing and getting video clips from all over the city. Coming in from the airport it all feels unknowable. Why did I want to study cities anyay? There are millions of lives and angles on this city, and although I believe a city can be read as a text and interpreted, the great extent of this particular city threatens to swallow up that ambition.
Then other challenges present themselves. The glaring sun makes everything either washed out light or deep shadow. And there's no variation in that light pattern.. so I just need to deal with it. The security forces are always visible and they don't often like cameras. My tactic is to use my small Flip camera. Then there are so many places to go! My favorite way of thinking about these two and a half weeks is that I will be a walking eyeball (apologies to Emerson). I will be taking in and recording.. and all that material I will organize in the months after I return (of course, I will work through some of the material day by day in this blog).
As it happens I have a fair number of personal memories related to this city. Being back in Zamalek brings many of them to mind. It's a wind from the past.. and a measure of time.. to see the same people sitting in the same shops and doing the same things. I passed on the street today the bawwab (door man) who helped me find my apartment when I arrived in fall 2002. He wouldn't know me from Adam, so I didn't say anything.. but there he is. I glimpsed also the bawwab at my former apartment. The Nubian man was sitting in the same place, only I saw that his hair is now a stately white. Other store owners I recognize as well.. such as the guys at the fruit drink stand. People that in America I would expect to move up.. or expand into something new.. here are just the same as they have always been.
An advantage in coming back to Cairo is that I've already seen everything. In Jerusalem (and other places) there are still lots of things that are "must-sees" that I want to get to. In Cairo I feel nothing like that. Pyramids? I've been there at least a half dozen times. And as far as Islamic sites I have also seen most everything. I find that freeing: there's nothing I have to see, so I can concentrate on getting the images I need and enjoying the things I might have overlooked in my haste to get somewhere in the past.
Thsi freedom also allows me think of neighborhoods and sections of Cairo that I could get better organized in my head.. and which I will hopefully get to know during this short trip.
As for trips outside Cairo I am going to forego a trip to Luxor and points south. I am weighing instead a couple of day trips into delta cities like Tanta or Zagazig. And if I could experience some of the smaller villages up there.. even better.
A new feeling.. and one that never goes away.. is the sadness that comes from being away from my little girl for this long. As soon as I stop doing anything she comes to mind.. and I see her smiling and running around my upstairs room.. or running around the bases at the tiny park back home. It will be pure joy to watch her come to understand something about the wider world.. and maybe someday I will get to show her the pyramids and all these beautiful things.. and marvel as I see them anew through her young eyes.
The Ethiopian Monastery
June 22, 2009
On the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a modest Ethiopian monastery. The monks worship in the chapel, which is just inside a substantial and quite old looking door. I made it my mission one morning to understand something about this monastery, and I stood for over an hour trying to talk with monks as they walked inside or came out. The picture above is what everyone can see: a small courtyard overlooked by a window from the domiciles of the monks. There is nothing very regular about the pattern of windows, which seem to be simply sculpted into the wall rather than fitted by plan.
The barrier to further advancement into the monastery was this green cross that stood in the low entrance. I could see and hear the monks beyond this, and occasionally they came out through this door, but no one let me in. My lucky break came as I talked to the caretaker in the chapel (they apparently take turns sitting and watching the chapel). I talked to him about prayer and he sang something for me. Then I asked if I could film him, and he agreed, and when it was done he was excited to see himself on my little Flip camera. He told me to show the other monks this small video camera, and after another twenty minutes or so waiting at the door of the monastery I found someone who would let me in and who knew a little bit of English. Here he is, inside the monastery:
From the inside there are lots of green doors, again randomly spaced, which give access to the small rooms for the monks. There is one sacred site marked with a cross that the monk claimed was the place where Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac.
There are lots of claims for the spot where that biblical story occurred (rock on Temple Mount) but I guess this is as good as anywhere.
The monks live a life of prayer and worship.. and their small space is nicely veiled from tourist eyes. Once inside I could look through the trees and see tourists or pilgrims walking out on the roof, but the life in this enclosed monastery space goes on in peace.. even if the steady hum of tourist voices in the background continues most of the day. In the video clip below I pan around the monastery, but listen for the sounds of people just outside the walls:
One of the largely unknown facts about Ethiopia is that they have their own classical language. Ethiopians speak a number of modern languages, but their Latin is called Ge'ez. Most of their liturgical books are organized into two columns, one for modern Amharic and the other Ge'ez. Need I say that for years I have wanted to learn Ge'ez? In the following video clip one of the monks holds up his New Testament and then reads a verse in Ge'ez:
I did not see all the monks, but I took a photo portrait of four who were sitting in the interior. I've made a slideshow of these monks:
The small Ethiopian Orthodox chapel could almost be mistaken for a Coptic one, with its inlaid wood front panel and icons of Jesus and Mary.
What really stands out as Ethiopian is the large painting hung on the side wall that depicts the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. The picture is glossed by a single verse from the Bible, so the significance of this picture is not totally clear to visitors. This is something of an origin story for the people of Ethiopia: the Queen of Sheba visited and was tricked into sleeping with Solomon; her son then returned to Israel and fled to Ethiopia with the best and brightest of the ancient Israelites; these become the core of the new Israel that took root in Ethiopia. The line of kings down to Hailie Selassie was thus in the lineage of Solomon, which went some way to establishing their legitimacy.
In the scheme of things the Ethiopian Orthodox church is not too important. It is the official church of a poor country in an out of the way part of the globe. Yet I find bracing and exciting the boldness of its claims. These monks are not the power brokers of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.. and the roof was probably not a place of honor.. but century after century they keep on with their traditions and recall among themselves the importance of their people and land.
A Program for the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher
June 22, 2009
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is not an easy building to figure out in its details. Each sect has its own corner in the basement or on the roof. You can't say that it was built to be user friendly. Be that as it may, the building is effortlessly experienced by thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day. This effortlessness, I believe, comes from the fact that the building conforms to the narrative of the death-burial-resurrection of Jesus.
When someone walks through the main entrance he or she immediately sees a large mosaic on the wall. The workmanship looks modern:
But whatever the date of the mosaic, it captures the story of the church. On the right you see Jesus coming down from the cross and his followers mourning him. In the center is Jesus being laid down to be dressed for burial. Then on the left (and moving out of the picture) you can see Jesus being laid in the tomb. Each of these three stages are represented spatially in the church. In the upper room is the site where Jesus was crucified; the Stone of Unction in the entrance of the church is where Jesus was prepared for burial; finally the Holy Sepulcher itself is where Jesus was buried. Anyone who walks into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the basic facts of the story of Jesus in mind will intuitively understand the flow of the building. There is hardly even any need for a guide. We could easily take this for granted, but it would be far less easy if the story were not so well inscribed onto the structure itself.
Ben Yehuda Street
June 21, 2009
Tomorrow morning I leave Jerusalem and head to Amman, Jordan.. and then fly on to Cairo, Egypt. I won't have an Israeli stamp in my passport so I guess officially none of this happened, but today I got a chance to walk around some Jewish sections of the city. I was fascinated by Ben Yehuda Street, which has been closed to traffic and is open for pedestrians. I took a series of photographs that were meant to capture some typical stores and scenes from the street. So here isi Ben Yehuda Street as I experienced it:
Hunger for the Real in Jerusalem
June 21, 2009
I'm not big on setting down laws of human behavior, but I am tempted to declare that human beings long for the real. That longing is a spur for pilgrimage.. and here in Jerusalem it's obvious almost everywhere I look. Above, a woman at the 6th Station of the Cross reaches out to touch an original stone set behind the inauthentic wall. Person after person came by to touch this place.
Within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher the sites of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus are gilded with shiny metal.. and you might think that here people aren't so worried about the real thing. But underneath the upstairs room where the crucifixion is commemorated you find these cut-out windows so that the actual rock of Golgotha is visible. We just want to know and feel that something is under all that gilt.. or else maybe the gilt stops meaning so much?
In the Jewish quarter this same phenomenon is visible. In contrast to the other sections of Jerusalem one suddenly comes upon large archeological cutaways. Down below are ruins and rebuilt columns. Why? The Israelis are invested in establishing their own ancient habitation here. The cutaways are a public way to make that point. People walk by without looking.. and there is not the adoration that one sees in the Christian veneration of the places connected to the death of Jesus, but these open windows onto the deep past should be thought of as mental reinforcement for contemporary political views. In Geertz's terms they establish an "aura of factuality."
The Western Wall is another example of a longing for the real. In the time of the Second Temple the Western Wall would have been unremarkable in the extreme. Nobody could possibly have guessed that this would be where God was present in a special way. One of the official signs upon entering speaks of God's constant presence in this place (as prelude to asking for reverent behavior). But I guess that is it.. we place God upon things that we believe are real and authentic.. and perceived age and history has much to do with this.
Tear Down This Wall, Israel
June 21, 2009
Upon leaving the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem late this afternoon our bus stopped at a tourist stand. I wasn't real happy because I've seen this scenario played out too many times in Egypt.. and I know the driver and guide get big kickbacks from this kind of thing. Plus they have no incentive to hurry things along. But the bright spot was that we were a short walk away from the wall that the Israelis have put up to physically separate themselves from the Palestinians. Many of us walked over to it and took pictures of the graffiti. The above slideshow has some examples.
The last couple of days has been an education as to the ugly reality of "settlements." We have mostly been on the bus heading to tourist stops, but looking out the window we have seen lots of settlements. Once one is pointed out it becomes easier to spot them. They are marked by their compact and fortress-like presence on hilltops:
As you can see from the picture, these are not wood and tin roof structures.. they are massive and solidly built. It's hard to see any intent to dismantle these.. or any hedging of bets. These are here to say and they sit on the hill top like a big "fuck you" to the Palestinians. Here is another example of one we saw from the top of the Herodion, a hilltop palace built by the biblical King Herod:
There are lots of scattered Palestinian houses in the area, but right in a great compact and green clump is an Israeli settlement. It's curious how much greener it looks than other nearby places. These are not just intrusions on the landscape but massive drains on the limited physical resources of the area.
Lots of things feel unreal to me here in Israel. Most of all it is clear that this is unsustainable in the long run. The settlements are a massive impediment to the two-state solution, and if this all keeps moving forward then there will be no possibility of a two-state solution.. and then there will be a choice: a Jewish state + apartheid or a single democratic state that treats Jews and Palestinians as equals. But this is not a choice that appears to be on everyone's mind.. least of all at the beach of the Dead Sea:
But come on people.. it doesn't work! Not when there are millions unable to move and stripped of any political voice. Doesn't make me feel like going for a swim and rubbing mud from the Dead Sea all over my body.
Melville and the Mediterranean
June 21, 2009
Back when I lived in Cairo I was so interested in the way stories determined the experience of a place that I decided to write my dissertation on the topic. I ended up reading texts such as the Travels of Egeria, a 5th century pilgrim from what is now France. Egeria arrived at sites connected to the Bible and then whipped out her Bible to read about the spot.
The "Melville and the Mediterranean" conference was sponsored by the Melville Society.. and the idea was to talk about Melville's relatively unknown epic poem about a pilgrimage through the Holy Land. This conference has been an opportunity to hear lots of papers on the topic of Melville, but at the same time we've spent afternoons getting around to the places that Melville saw. Today's trip to the Mar Saba monastery south of Jerusalem was a particular treat as Melville set the third book of Clarel here. While at the monastery we naturally read some lines by Melville:
That is Tim Marr, one of the many Melville scholars and enthusiasts I've been talking with over the last few days.
The conference has been a revelation for me. I've been dissatisfied with huge MLA or AAR conferences. I deliver a paper but I don't feel like I really meet people or get a lot out of the random panels I attend. This conference is different because it's a small enough group that I've had the opportunity to talk with almost everyone. Also we are all listening to each other's papers so there is an easy exchange of ideas. Another aspect of the conference I really like is its focus on a single book, Clarel. Since I read over the text last term I come to the conference curious about what other people have to say about it.. and thus more attentive to the papers. Finally, having the conference set in Jerusalem adds another way I profit from the experience. Because of the tours I had the opportunity to visit new places. So set me down as an enthusiast for this experience. And the next Melville conference will be in Rome! (in two years). So guess where I will be..
Since I'm in religious studies.. and not officially an American lit person.. I've gotten asked why I'm interested in Melville. First, he is not my main scholarly interest, but he could become something of a sideline for me. The easiest way to explain my relation with Melville (and Clarel more specifically) is to point out how Melville and I share a number of fascinations. The reason Clarel is such a hard book is precisely because it ventures so often into my territory (al-Hakim, Adomnan, Druze, Islam, theological speculation, sacred places, religious rituals). In addition my far project is going to be a difficult and eccentric book on the commentary as a form. Melville (and Borges) is a great example of a writer who believes in the power of the mind to expand and open up what is on the surface of a text or a place.. in other words a rich reader of texts and the world.
Clarel is itself a difficult and eccentric text.. and the scholar who did the most to make this text accessible was Walter Bezanson. I found his edition of Clarel in our library at Lawrence and used his notes as my guide to the characters and themes of the book. It so happens that Bezanson's birthday fell on one day of the conference. So with Time Marr I filmed the attendees (many of whom know him quite well) wishing him happy birthday. We will be sending this link to him, and I hope he enjoys it.
Dome of the Rock
July 20, 2009
I have finally visited the Dome of the Rock! A few years ago when in Jerusalem I could not visit the Temple Mount. This time the Melville conference group got a generous tour. The interior of the dome is currently being repaired, so that was covered with scaffolding and invisible, but the rest was gloriously visible. I tried my best to be a walking eye.
The idea that the Dome of the Rock was built to commemorate the night journey of Muhammad to Jerusalem is firmly established in Islamic tradition.. and the guides dutifully tell the story. But the evidence for that as the original understanding of the Dome of the Rock is pretty slim. The Quran quotations on the interior do not make any connection to that event.. which is strange if that was the central reason for building it. The Dome of the Rock appears instead to be a monumental political statement built in a landscape dominated by Christians and Jews. It was in effect stating: We are here to stay and legitimate claimants to divine revelation.
Below I have set a short video clip of our tour guide. You will see why I say that the only way to listen to these guys is as a humorous interlude in the midst of doing the real work of looking and thinking for yourself about what lies in front of you.
Tourists in Church of Holy Sepulcher
July 20, 2009
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a strange place. Its administration would be the definition of a Byzantine system, except everyone besides the Orthodox would complain about word choice. The above video clip captures some of the liveliness on the streets of the old city as one gets close to the church. We are standing at #6 of the Stations of the Cross. I begin to film the street but then get surprised by a procession of middle-aged women marching down the street and carrying a cross.
This second video shows the scene directly in front of the Holy Sepulcher itself (which houses the tomb where Jesus was supposedly buried). I find it a strange mix of the genuine spirit of pilgrimage and the tourists walking with cameras ready to shoot. I am probably closer to the latter category than anything else.. so I don't mean to throw stones. All I can say is that my camera is facing a different direction than everybody else's.
I also wonder where all these photos go? I mean just in a minute you can see lots of people snapping pictures.. and sure some of them wind up on Flickr.. but what about all that mass of digital data? This video clip is, in essence, about our mania for capturing images.
This third and final video is a view from the upper room that marks the place that Jesus was crucified. We are looking down upon the Stone of Unction. This is the stone where the body of Jesus was laid when it was taken down from the cross. Many devout pilgrims upon entering immediately touch the stone and even bring items to spread out on the stone and thereby become blessed. I imagine that these items may well become gifts for people back home.
Relics of the Intifada in Al-Aqsa Mosque
July 19, 2009
The photo is a view of the al-Aqsa Mosque as one descends from the mount upon which sits the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock is a shrine or monument that in its 7th century context announced the primacy of Islam in a city claimed by Jews and Christians, but the actual mosque on the Temple Mount is the structure known as the al-Aqsa Mosque. Here, in contrast to the Dome of the Rock, you find the wide space necessary for congregational prayer.
As we walked through the al-Aqsa Mosque our guide narrated the beginning of the second intifada, which began in 2000 when Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon made his entrance onto the Temple Mount. This sparked an explosion of violence. I am not interested in wading into the ins and outs of this conflict, but just want to note how it is represented within the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Our guide first pointed out what looked like bullet holes above us in some of the mosaics above the qibla:
You will note the white spots peppered into the mosaic. The guide also pointed out some gashes in the marble columns, attributing them to the weapons used in quelling the protests surrounding the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount.
It was already clear that the story of the "al-Aqsa Intifada" had become central to the story of this already-storied mosque. But it got even more emphasis as the guide pointed to a wooden case filled with the shells and cartridges from the weapons used by the Israelis. These were carefully laid out on shelves.
You can see how everything has been laid out.. and it resembles nothing so much as the display of relics in a church. Here is a view of the case as it stands in a central part of the mosque:
It is clearly different from a display of Christian relics in that there are no prayers or other signs of devotion surrounding the case. But within the context of a mosque and the Qurans it is still an odd addition. It points to the use of the al-Aqsa Mosque as more than a religious structure, but as a carrier of nationalistic symbolism as well. To my mind that is an unfortunate, if inevitable, movement.
On leaving the Temple Mount and walking back down into the old city of Jerusalem, I ran into these images taped along a door of a merchant stall. The images are of Israeli actions against Palestinians, and one is of the al-Aqsa Intifada:
I don't claim to see any way out of this, but I do see it as a net negative when religious symols (such as al-Aqsa Mosque) are transposed into political symbols. That process is in a very advanced stage here in Israel.
In Jerusalem
June 17, 2009
I am now in Jerusalem after some grueling travel. First I would say that the experience of coming across the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge form Jordan to Israel was not pleasant. I wanted to do it this way to avoid the Israeli stamp in my passport and because next week I need to fly to Cairo.. and that can't happen from Jerusalem. Also I just feel better about not supporting Israel. The "Melville in the Mediterranean" conference that I am currently is being held in the Palestinian part of Jerusalem, a little beyond the Damascus Gate.
More on the conference tomorrow (I just gave my paper today and between that and travel I'm exhausted). But I want to make a few notes about crossing into Israel. The Israeli border workers are strikingly young. I looked at all these girls in charge of border security and thought: they could be sitting in my classes! They are that young. It's a result of compulsory service requirements for all young people.
When a getting-toward-middle-age supervisor appeared I was almost shocked. But despite their youth they handled themselves with a lot of seriousness. When I got ordered out of line.. even after I had my passport stamped.. and had my keys and wallet chemically checked for bomb materials.. there was no breaking a smile.. even after I was declared clean.
Two thoughts on this process. First, how amazing that all these young people have such a deep and serious induction into the project that is their country. Everyone is literally pitching in. Everyone is sharing the work of that project. I'm sure that is a somewhat idealistic description, but there's nothing like it in the US. Second, and more negatively, how weird to walk into a customs station that is staffed by teenagers who should be working at McDonalds.. or some other summer job. This is the part of me that is not crazy about a society in which the military is the organizing priority.
BTW, the two pictures at the head of this post are from Damascus Gate. (I was too nervous to take out a camera during the border crossing. I saw no signs, but, you know, I'm sure it would not have done me any good or sped up my misery.
