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Tunisia bid a final farewell on June 1 to the prominent historian and scholar of Islam – Hichem Djait, whose input was seminal to research on critical periods of Islamic history. From sociological, philosophical and anthropological perspectives, Djait’s publications offer insight into key issues facing the interpretation of Islamic history and the interaction of Islam with modernity.
Born in 1935 in Tunis to an erudite family in Islamic jurisprudence, Djait received a conservative education in his immediate milieu before attending the Sadiki high school in Tunis, which opened the gates for him to French and Western culture in general. He received an advanced degree in history in France in 1962. Afterwards, he obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic history from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1981.
In a comment on his learning journey from Tunis to Paris, he said: “My discovery of philosophy was decisive. It was a conquest and a spiritual awakening, and I do not mean that only in a metaphysical sense, but also at the level of psychology, ethics and logic. It was then that preconceived certainties began to melt away and I discovered biology and the theory of evolution, and all of this amazed me and astonished me at the same time.” (See a related article, “Do Human Evolution and Islam Conflict in the Classroom?”)
Djait, who died at age 86, spent nearly half a century investigating Islamic history and Arab culture. He was an emeritus professor at the University of Tunis and a visiting professor in several renowned higher education institutions, including McGill University, in Montreal, and the University of California at Berkeley. He was also a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, chairman of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and a member of the International Scientific Committee that produced Unesco’s eight-volume General History of Africa.
His stay in the West inspired him to write Europe and Islam, a book that sheds light on the interplay between Islam and Western civilization. His magnum opus remains The Great Fitna (La Grande Discorde), a groundbreaking work in the study of a major period of Islamic history in line with a rigorous academic approach.
His focus shifted more towards writing the biography of the Prophet Muhammad using scientific lenses in what has been described as a bold approach to Islamic history that breaks away from the sacralization that permeates the work of many Arab scholars on the subject. His goal was to rewrite prophetic tradition in a scientific way that combines comparative history with anthropological insight.
In this respect, he made it clear that a distinction should be made between historical thought, historiography and the philosophy of history. This book was written in three parts and puts the genesis of Islam in its historical context. (See a related article, “A New Perspective on the Last Days of the Prophet.”)
Djait received a constellation of distinctions and prizes, including being named Arab Cultural Personality of the Year by the Arab Institute for Research and Publishing in Beirut in 2016, and being honored in 2018 by a group of Arab researchers who dedicated to him a book that sheds light on his rich academic and intellectual journey.
source/content: www.al-fanarmedia.org (edited for length)
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Hichem Djait died June 2021 at age 86. The Tunisian scholar spent nearly half a century investigating Islam’s place in history and in the modern world (Photo: from Facebook).
In 1851, the Great Exhibition set out to bring culture, history and innovations together in one place — London — for the world to see. Since this inaugural world expo, however, more than 85 percent of the global events have been hosted by either European or North American cities.
Some notable exceptions are the expos held in Asia, including Osaka in 1970, Aichi in 2005 and Shanghai in 2010, almost all of which set attendance records. But to date, these major events have been predominantly northern and western hemisphere affairs.
That is why Expo 2020 Dubai has been such a big deal, not just for world expos but also for the Middle East and North Africa region as a whole, with the Arab world occupying center stage for the first time.
As host, the UAE has offered the very essence of Arab hospitality, first by dedicating a pavilion to every participating nation, and, second, by giving every nation its own “national day” throughout the event. Saudi Arabia’s day fell on Jan. 7.
Expo 2020 Dubai has also had a distinctly Arab feel. The site is peppered with traditional Arabic design features, on its sunshades, water fountains and even public seating.
It is a well-known expo fact that pavilion positioning is everything, often indicating a nation’s global significance and its relationship with the host. With masterful design planning, the UAE was able to place participating Arab countries at the heart of the action, giving them greater visibility and prominence.
Naturally, the UAE pavilion is the largest, occupying the prime position. Its immediate neighbor is the impressive, world record-setting Saudi Arabian pavilion, and close by are Morocco, Palestine, Egypt, Kuwait and other Arab countries.
The Saudi pavilion achieved three Guinness World Records for the largest interactive light floor, the longest interactive water curtain and the largest interactive digital screen mirror. But it is not alone in showcasing avant-garde architecture ideas.
While the expo lives up to its theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” it also offers a visible celebration of Arab cultures and nations on a global stage.
Themes celebrating the past are normally divided between the ancient past, such as the Bronze Age settlements of Failaka Island in Kuwait, and the more recent past, before the rapid urbanization of the last half-century.
Indeed, the Arab pavilions go to great lengths to pay homage to the feats and wisdom of past generations. For example, the first exhibit in the UAE pavilion features a stylized desert, with the soft, fine sand of Emirati dunes used as a projection surface for old film reels paying tribute to Sheikh Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father.
In the nearby Vision Pavilion, dedicated to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, a guided video tour begins with the story of his stay with a Bedouin leader in the desert as a child, and the lasting impact that connection with the land made on him as a leader.
In the Saudi pavilion, ancient cultural sites, such as the tombs in Al-Hijr, At-Turaif District and the AlUla valley, are featured in a striking visual tour of the rich cultural history and natural beauty of the Kingdom.
In the Oman pavilion, meanwhile, a focus on frankincense highlights the sultanate’s eye-catching landscape and long trading history.
Far from focusing exclusively on their glorious past, Arab pavilions look to the future. Many have a concrete vision that highlights targets set in order to achieve desired development outcomes.
Saudi Arabia has put sustainability at the heart of its vision for the future, Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify its economy, alongside a pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060.
Egypt has its own Vision 2030 plan, announced in 2016, which sets out eight national targets aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on an inclusive economy, education and the environment.
In this vein, Kuwait’s pavilion addresses the resilience of its earliest settlements, while a stylized water tower at the pavilion’s center highlights the ways in which humans have carefully managed its natural resources in order to flourish there.
Although Lebanon’s pavilion is much more austere compared with other Arab offerings, its message is a strong reminder of the resilience of its people.
Taken together, Arab participants in Expo 2020 Dubai have made good use of this global stage to highlight their achievements, heritage, ambitions and fortitude. In this sense, the expo can be considered an Arab triumph.
source/content: arabnews.com
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Expo 2020 Dubai has been such a big deal, not just for world expos but also for the Middle East and North Africa region as a whole, with the Arab world occupying center stage for the first time. (AFP/AN Photo)
After the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a near-two-year closure, the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, has finally reopened its doors to visitors.
Founded in 2005, AANM bills itself as America’s first and only museum devoted to telling the stories of Arab-American history and culture. Its location is apt; Dearborn is home to the largest Arab community in the US — around 40 percent of the city’s population is of Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni, Iraqi, or Palestinian origin.
eaturing a courtyard, a fountain, and thematic spaces, the interior of AANM pays homage to Middle Eastern and North African design and architectural aesthetics. Through its galleries, the museum details Arabs’ varied contributions to humanity, and the phases of Arab immigration: the challenges of coming to America, the challenges of establishing a life there, and the impact of Arab-Americans in the public and private spheres.
It tells the stories of peddlers, entrepreneurs, scholars, military men and women, artists, and entertainers. There are some important but relatively unknown names highlighted. Take Ruth Joyce Essad, a fashion designer born in 1908, for example. She became one of Detroit’s first couturiers — dressing socialists and singers, including big-band vocalist Dinah Shore. Another interesting personality is the Syrian business owner Leon B. Holwey, who claimed to have co-invented the ice-cream cone in the early 1900s.
On a national level, the profile of Arab-Americans was raised last year by President Joe Biden, who made history by establishing National Arab American Heritage Month, which will take place in April every year.
source/content: arabnews.com
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The Arab American National Museum is in Dearborn. (Supplied) / arabnews.com
Russian tribute to Yehia Abdel-Tawab, first ballet dancer in Egypt
Yehia Abdel-Tawab, one of the pioneers of ballet in Egypt and the recipient of the Medal of Merit from late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, has been honored by the Egyptian Association of Graduates of Russian and Soviet Universities (EAGRSU) and the Russian House in Cairo for his contribution in strengthening Egyptian-Russian relations through his artistic career.
The EAGRSU and the Russian House held a seminar titled ‘The Ballet in Egypt and Russian Experiences’ earlier this week in honour of Abdel-Tawab, who is a professor of ballet at the Academy of Arts.
The seminar, held at the Russian Cultural Centre in Dokki, was moderated by President of the Association Sherif Gad and attended by director of the Russian Cultural Centres in Egypt Marat Gatin, dean of the Ballet Institute in Cairo Atef Awad, former dean of the Ballet Institute Sherif Bahader, member of the board of directors of the association Samia Tawfik, and Ballet Institute professor Tahani Hassan.
Abdel-Tawab also stressed that ballet in Egypt has a strong foundation, and with the efforts made by the state to build new opera houses, there will be many specialized ballet companies, and called for more cooperation with Russian experts in order to exchange experiences.
Former dean of the Ballet Institute Bahader said that Abdel-Tawab is considered one of Egypt’s first pioneers in the art of ballet, and one of the greatest ballet dancers in the entire world.
“He is also one of the first dancers in double dance in Egypt and the Arab world.”
Professor of ballet Tahani Hassan expressed her pride in her teacher at the Ballet Institute Abdel-Tawab, pointing out that all his students learned from him commitment, as he was accurate in timing and executing movements.
During the event, a documentary film on the history of the art of ballet in Egypt was shown, and Gad presented a certificate of honour on behalf of the association to Abdel-Tawab in appreciation of his great artistic career.
source/content: english.ahram.org.eg
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(L-r) Marat Gatin, Sherif Bahader, Tahani Hassan, Yehia Abdel-Tawab, Atef Awad, and Sherif Gad photo credit of the Russiaan Centre
50 countries to take part in Aqsa Week 2022 to promote love of mosque, raise awareness
A UK-based initiative to shed light on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has gone global for the second year in a row, with more than 50 countries set to take part, according to organizers.
Aqsa Week 2022, which will run from Feb. 24 to March 2, is being organized by the British-based Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) — a NGO concerned with defending the human rights of Palestinians and protecting the Al-Aqsa Sanctuary.
FOA said that during the week, which they anticipate to be the biggest one yet, mosques, universities, local councils and parliaments will hold talks, workshops and other activities and educational events to highlight the mosque’s heritage, and bring global focus to its issues.
Aqsa Week, which was launched by FOA in 2017, aims to inform people of Al-Aqsa and its history and significance, as well as the dangers faced by Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian people.
Al-Aqsa is Islam’s third holiest site and is in close proximity to religions sites significant to Jews and Christians, making the area a flashpoint in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Israeli government has on occasion prevented Muslim worshippers from accessing the mosque.
Several of the FAO events will be streamed live on their social media accounts, as well as TV and radio, and they have chosen #LoveAqsa as this year’s hashtag.
In her latest exhibiton, “My Silk Road,” the Algerian visual artist Salima Ayadi presents a tribute to her cultural heritage with 19 paintings and 30 scarves inspired by — among other things — Islamic architecture, ceramic and faience patterns, and calligraphy.
The exhibition opened at the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art in Algiers on January 22 and runs until February 13.
Ayadi graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Algiers with a degree in visual communication in 1982. For more than 37 years, she has produced silk-painted works — a technique to which she was introduced by an artist friend while on a trip to Switzerland. She has created artworks and scarves for national institutions such as the Senate and the People’s National Assembly, or for large companies including Sonatrach, Sonelgaz, Air Algeria, to name a few.
“For national institutions, I have worked on the cultural and historical heritage of Algeria, which is particularly rich. My works represent landscapes and monuments of all regions of the Casbah of Algiers, the Tassili n’Ajjer in the South-East, or the Berber patterns of Kabylia,” Ayadi tells Arab News. “These creations have been exhibited and some of them have been offered to foreign partners.” Her work has been shown in numerous group and individual exhibitions both at home and in Libya, Morocco and Iran.
Her first solo exhibition, held in 2017 at the Palace of Culture Moufdi Zakaria in Kouba, was a great success. “This exhibition (was very important), because it allowed me interact and mingle with the public,” she says. Each painting is created over a series of stages, each with its own potential pitfalls. Ayadi says that her selection of colors — reds, blues and greens are particular favorites — is based on the idea behind each painting. Once the selection process is complete, she can get to work — an often-painstaking process.
Behind each piece lies her passionate love of her Algerian heritage and her country’s rich and diverse culture. Currently, besides the “My Silk Road” exhibition, she is focused on producing a book of her work, which she hopes to release in the next year or so.
source/content: arabnews.com
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Salima Ayadi is an Algerian visual artist. (Supplied)
Meet the Queen Bikers, Tunisia’s first all-female motorcycle club.
“There are more than 300 women who have a motorcycle driving licence in Tunisia, but do not practise this sport,” Khadija Hsaini, one of the founding members of the group, told Reuters.
She said there are a host of reasons holding women back. “They do not feel safe, or because they can’t find clubs that they can belong to, or because they don’t want to drive with men and want an all-female group.”
Dozens of motorcycle clubs exist around the country, but are almost exclusively composed of men – many of whom think women should only ride motorcycles as passengers.
So Hsaini set about to find other women to ride with. Among them is Wafa Khalifa.
“The idea [for the club] came when we were all separated,” Khalifa told Reuters. “Each woman owned a motorcycle, but was alone.”
Hsaini reached out to her and others. “She looked for us on social media and found every person in the area. Then she sent messages asking why we were so far from each other.”
Now the women gather regularly to ride their motorcycles along Tunisia’s scenic coastal roads, past Roman ruins and through endless stretches of olive groves. They pause along the way to take selfies with their bikes, and with one another.
source/content: thenationalnews.com
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Chaima Ben Ammou, member of a women’s-only motorcycle club, cleans her bike at her shop in Nabeul, Tunisia. Reuters
Saudi Arabia has declared Feb. 10 as “Arabian Leopard Day” in a bid to raise awareness of the endangered big cat.
The move, which was announced by the Council of Ministers last month, is part of the Kingdom’s efforts to protect the species, which is now classed as critically endangered, from extinction.
The Arabian leopard is the chief predator in Saudi Arabia and plays a major role in the Kingdom’s culture. But overhunting and a lack of natural prey means there are now fewer than 200 left in the wild.
In December 2020, Prince Badr Bin Farhan, the minister of culture and governor of the Royal Commission for AlUla, established the Global Fund to Protect the Arabian Leopard from Extinction in the Sharaan Nature Reserve. Its aim is to sustain the leopard population and its prey, and protect its natural habitat.
Images of the Arabian Leopard were projected onto buildings and monuments across Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Feb.10.
In recent years, the commission and the National Center for Wildlife have been working on a number of initiatives to protect the big cat. Among these is expanding a breeding program within the Sharaan reserve.
Also, last year, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, launched the nonprofit foundation Catmosphere to raise awareness of the many endangered cat species around the world, including the Arabian leopard.
The Kingdom also works closely with Panthera, which is devoted to the conservation of the world’s wild cat species.
The Arabian leopard lives in high mountains and is native to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the UAE. Anyone found hunting the animal in the Kingdom faces a fine of SAR400,000 ($106,000) — rising to SAR30 million for repeat offenders — and up to 10 years in prison.
source/content: arabnews.com
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The Arabian leopard is the chief predator in Saudi Arabia and plays a major role in the Kingdom’s culture. (SPA)
In summer 2020, Arab News reported that the National Library of Israel, founded in Jerusalem in 1892, was planning to digitize its large collection of rare Islamic books and manuscripts, as part of a cross-cultural drive to open its digital doors to Arabic speakers in Israel and across the region.
Back in August 2020, Dr. Raquel Ukeles, then curator of the Islam and Middle East Collection at the NLI, said that the library was determined to play a part in eradicating what she saw as the “tremendous amount of ignorance about Islam, about Palestinian culture and Arab culture generally that has real repercussions on the political level.”
It was, she said, “very natural for us to be focusing on and investing in this material, to create space for Muslim culture in Israel and in the broader intellectual life, whether it’s in the Middle East or in the world, to enable greater understanding.”
The response has been truly impressive.
“The truth is that I’m thrilled to see the massive increase in the use of our Arabic digital resources,” Dr. Ukeles, who is now head of collections at the library, told Arab News a year and a half later.
“It’s so heartening to see that people are willing to cross boundaries in order to gain knowledge.”
In 2021, more than 650,000 visitors from across the Arab world found their way to the NLI’s Arabic-language website — an increase of 40 percent compared with 2020. There has been a dramatic increase in interest from Saudi Arabia in particular.
Most of the visitors, seeking out not only rare Islamic documents but also other archival treasures including a large collection of historic Arabic-language newspapers, came chiefly from the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Algeria.
Worldwide, there was a 125 percent increase to 1.5 million visitors to the Arabic site. Within Israel itself, the number of visitors to the site jumped by 250 percent to a total of 620,000 users, while the library’s trilingual Hebrew-Arabic-English site as a whole registered 10 million visits in 2021.
There has been a dramatic increase in interest from Saudi Arabia in particular. In 2021, there was a 30 percent growth in traffic from the Kingdom to the NLI site, with more than 121,000 sessions by nearly 94,000 individual users. About a third of the visitors were women, and 60 percent of the total were aged between 25 and 44.
“When we launched our first digital archive of early Arabic newspapers from Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine in September 2016, we had an annual rate of about 5,000 users for the first few years,” Dr. Ukeles said.
“That number has now increased by about tenfold and, thanks to our talented Arabic digital team, this past year we had 1.5 million total users of our Arabic websites.”
It was, she said, the aim of the National Library of Israel “to allow people to gain access to their own culture and history,” but also “to stimulate curiosity and engender respect about other cultures.”
This seems to be working.
“Users from the Arab world are searching our collections of Arabic newspapers and Islamic manuscripts, but they are also interested in our historical maps and digitized materials about Jewish history and Israel.”
Thanks to technology, the priceless documents at the library are even more accessible online, where they can be seen in exquisite, close-up detail — far better than they would be if viewed in person behind the glass of a display case.
“Technology allows culture and the written word to cross boundaries and reach new places previously inaccessible,” said Yaron Deutscher, head of digital at NLI.
“The fact that so many people from across the Arab world are expressing such a high level of interest in the cultural treasures freely available via the website shows just how relevant these things are, even for the younger generation living in our region.”
Those treasures include some extraordinary documents, including an exquisite copy of Muhammad Al-Busayri’s famous 13th-century poem “Qasidat Al-Burda,” or Ode of the Mantle, written in praise of the Prophet.
Also online are maps, illustrations and photographs, and hundreds of thousands of pages of historic Arabic newspapers from Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine — invaluable “rough first drafts of history” published between 1908 and 1948.
Newspapers and journals from the past “constitute one of the more clear-sighted vantage points for acquainting ourselves with bygone eras,” said a spokesperson for the library.
“Periodicals are an important resource for scholars as well as a portal for anyone wishing to access history through the words of contemporaries.”
Among the most regularly viewed items are 73 issues of the weekly newspaper Al-Arab, published in Mandatory Palestine between August 1932 and April 1934. Its writers included prominent authors and intellectuals of the day, such as Muhammad ‘Izzat Darwaza, the Palestinian politician and historian whose contributions included the important article, “The Modern Awakening of Arab Nationalism,” and who was interned by the British in 1936.
The 167 issues of the bi-weekly newspaper Al-Jazira, published in Palestine between 1925 and 1927, is another invaluable insight into the politics of the day, while a fascinating snapshot of contemporary art and culture can be found in the rare three issues of the magazine Al-Fajr. Its purpose, as declared in its first edition, published on June 21, 1935, was “to represent all intellectual currents in literature, society, art, and science.”
It was, says the NLI, “a veritable storehouse of knowledge and included diverse writings (and) represented an important stage in the development of Palestinian culture.”
Al-Fajr lasted only two years. Along with many newspapers and magazines, it ceased publishing during the Arab revolt in Palestine between 1936 and 1939, and never returned to print.
One of the oldest periodicals in the digital collection is the daily newspaper Al-Quds. First published in Jerusalem in 1908, the 107 issues in the collection cover the period from then until the end of 1913, offering fascinating insights into the prevailing social and political concerns on the eve of the First World War and the final death throes of the Ottoman Empire.
Social history aside, the most visually breathtaking treasures belong to the more distant past. Many of the documents and books contain unrivaled examples of Arabic and Persian calligraphy and illustrations.
The library attributes the rise in interest in its collections in part to the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreement signed between Bahrain, Israel and the UAE on Sept. 15, 2020, which saw the first Israeli embassy open in Abu Dhabi, and the first embassy of the UAE in Tel Aviv.
In May last year, the NLI signed a historic memorandum of understanding with the National Archives of the UAE in Abu Dhabi, committing the two organizations “to work together in support of mutual and separate goals and for the benefit of the international cultural and documentary heritage sector.”
The NLI said that the collaboration came “amid increased interest in regional collaboration in the wake of the Abraham Accords” and, in a joint communique, the new partners hailed the agreement as “a significant step forward.”
Both organizations, said the NLI, “serve as the central institutions of national memory for their respective countries and broader publics, and in recent years both have launched expansive and diverse efforts to serve scholars and wider audiences domestically and internationally.”
For Dr. Ukeles, the collaboration advanced “our shared goals of preserving and opening access to cultural heritage for the benefit of users of all ages and backgrounds in Israel, the UAE and across the region and the world.”
Dr. Abdulla M. Alraisi, director-general of the UAE’s national archives, said that the collaboration reflects its determination to “spread its wings around the world to reach the most advanced global archives and libraries, to obtain the documents that come at the heart of its interest as it documents the memory of the homeland for generations.”
source/content: arabnews.com
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Ottoman Hajj manual. (Supplied/ National Library of Israel)
The video chain features 265 people of different nationalities speaking various languages while passing the “Expo 2020 Dubai” pin in the Al Forsan Park at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The Dubai Police General Command and Expo 2020 Dubai received an official Guinness certificate in the presence of Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of the Expo 2020 Dubai Office; Major General Ahmed Mohammed Rafea, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police for Administrative Affairs; Brigadier Saleh Murad, Director of the General Department of Human Resources; and many officers and officials representing the various pavilions at the global event.
The event witnessed the participation of 265 people, 146 females and 119 males, from 193 nationalities of participating pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai.
