Visions from Abroad Mona Khazindar
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Visions from Abroad Mona Khazindar Visions from Abroad Historical and Contemporary Representations of Arabia Introduction by Philippe Cardinal Contents Cover We would like to express our deep gratitude Note to Readers 7 Introduction Anonymous to Ithra and, in particular, to Mr Mohammed A modern and simplified transcription has been Philippe Cardinal Arabie, seventeenth century Khoja, Sponsorships and Partnerships strategist. systematically adopted for Arabic terms, Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale First published in Italy in 2019 by particularly for proper nouns. From one author, de France Skira editore S.p.A. era, and language to the next, transcriptions may 13 The Gates of Arabia Palazzo Casati Stampa vary greatly: the name of the city of Jeddah, Editor via Torino 61 for example, has been spelled Djuddah, Djeddah, Paola Gribaudo 43 The Center of the World 20123 Milano Djedda, Jedda, Gedda, Geddah, Dsjidda, etc. Art Director Italy The same applies for the city of Mecca—spelled Marcello Francone www.skira.net Meccah, Mekke, etc.—and for most names 71 The Flora of the Peninsula transcribed from Arabic. When they appear in Design All rights reserved under international copyright the texts cited in this publication, these different Luigi Fiore conventions. transcriptions have been consistently replaced by 89 The People of the Sands No part of this book may be reproduced or Editorial Coordination the most common forms used in contemporary utilized in any form or by any means, electronic Vincenza Russo English: Jeddah, Mecca, Yanbu, Medina, etc. or mechanical, including photocopying, 107 Ship in the Dunes The text of this work is peppered with a great Editing recording, or any information storage and many citations taken from the books of explorers, Anna Albano retrieval system, without permission in writing Orientalists, geographers, historians, and from the publisher. 125 The Desert of Deserts Layout adventurers who traveled in Arabia and/or wrote Paola Ranzini Pallavicini © 2019 Mona Khazindar for her text about it—in different languages, but mainly © 2019 Skira editore, Milano in Arabic, English or French. Translations of some 141 Cities of Yesterday and Tomorrow Translations © Kader Attia, Charles Fouqueray, of these works are more accessible than the Johanna Kreiner and Sara Heft Raymond Depardon, Jan Peeters, original text and in those cases, citations have for NTL, Firenze 165 Days and Lives Thierry Mauger by SIAE 2019 been retranslated back to their original languages from the aforementioned translations, resulting Printed and bound in Italy. First edition in a version that diverges slightly from the 183 The Arabian Horse ISBN: 978-88-572-3946-0 original text. Distributed in USA, Canada, Central & South 199 Fortune in Fossils America by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 75 Broad Street Suite 630, New York, NY 10004, USA. 213 Past Civilizations Distributed elsewhere in the world by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom. 227 Maps of the Past www.skira.net 237 Biographical notes A book conceived by 260 Bibliography Introduction Alongside visual representations from about a hundred Arabia, which over time included the Abbasids of Bagh- different artists, the text of this work seeks to demon- dad; the Fatimids of Cairo; the Ayyubids of Cairo and strate how a whole series of images of the vast territory Damascus; and later, the Ottomans. Overseen by the that is Arabia, long considered one of the most obscurely dominant power of each era, the organisation of the secretive parts of the world, have gradually emerged pilgrimage was extremely complex to carry out: it called in books and travel accounts inspired by the region. It for logistics and resources made all the more substantial should be noted that all of these artists and authors are in the face of the Bedouin tribes of the lands and deserts foreigners to the peninsula. that had to be crossed to reach the holy cities, who Arabia’s reputation for impenetrability, and the continually seemed to make every effort to disrupt the mystery that this has created, might be retraced to an- well-oiled choreography of the caravans. Under those tiquity: in the early second century, during the reign circumstances, it was nevertheless impossible to build a of the Roman emperor Trajan and his successor Had- fortification modelled after the Romans’ Limes Arabicus rian, the Limes Arabicus was established, a strategic to ward off the Bedouins, because they happened to be fortification some 1,500 kilometers long, consisting of on their home turf! forts, fortresses, and watchtowers running from Syria Quite evidently, European curiosity about Arabia through the deserts of northern Arabia. One hundred took time to emerge: Ludovico di Varthema, the first and fifty years earlier, despite their dominant position from the continent to undertake the voyage to Medina in the world, the Romans had failed miserably to take and Mecca, only did so at the dawn of the sixteenth over the caravan trade in southern Arabia, the source century. In other words, his journey took place two of the peninsula’s wealth. centuries after those of Marco Polo, and one century Dismissed from the milestones of knowledge, this after those of Niccolo de’ Conti—other Italians drawn Arabia then ceased to be of any concern for Europeans. to faraway lands. He followed in the wake of the jour- But while Europe was in the midst of the Middle Ages, a neys of the great discovers, Magellan, Vasco de Gama number of Arabic-language authors wrote travel books and Christopher Columbus, at a time when America was and geographical compendia providing accounts of Ara- attracting attention. bian realities. It would take many centuries, however, for It is not exactly clear, however, why Ludovico di the works of Ibn Hawqal, penned in the eleventh century; Varthema, who figures in several chapters of this pub- Ibn Jubayr, from the twelfth century; or of Ibn Battuta lication, one day decided to leave his hometown of Bo- and Abulfeda, from the fourteenth century—to name just logna to travel to the Near East, to Damascus, where he a few—to be translated and printed in European languag- managed to be recruited as a Mameluke officer, joining es. Of Arabia, these authors first recounted the context the escort service of some fifty men tasked with protect- in which the pilgrimage to Mecca and visits to the city ing the caravan bound for the holy cities—and in whose Anne Blunt of Medina were carried out—a context encompassing a ranks he had to fight Bedouin armies, he asserted. Fol- Melakh great many episodes of the Muhammadan act and the be- lowing stays in Medina, then Mecca, where he cast off Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier after a watercolor by Anne Blunt ginnings of Islam. Consequently, for these authors, Arabia his mercenary attire, Varthema continued his journey From Voyage en Arabie. most often tended to be limited to the expanse of Hijaz, onward to Yemen, then India, which clearly illustrates Pèlerinage au Nedjed, berceau de la race arabe (A Pilgrimage to and the political situation was not necessarily treated. that Hijaz represented but a leg of his journey. Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab race) Hijaz has nevertheless always played a substantial role Following Varthema, it took more than a century Paris, 1882 Courtesy of the British Library in terms of influence for every Muslim power neighboring and a half for another European to make the journey 7 to Mecca and Medina, cities from which non-Muslims light of the Dhu al-Hijjah moon. Burton subsequently Waclav Seweryn Rzewuski resourceful gentleman, he traveled to Arabia to procure Arab village in the desert of Nejd, were banned—a ban which, depending on the era, could devoted years of his life to a translation of The Arabi- 1817–19 horses for the stud farms of Queen Catharina of Würt- more or less apply to the whole of Hijaz. A few excep- an Nights, still recognised as the best English-language From Impressions d’Orient temberg and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Considered by et d’Arabie. Un cavalier polonais tions applied to this ban: until the eighteenth century, it version of this work. He had himself buried in a tomb chez les bédouins the Bedouins “as the great emir of the Northern tribes, could happen that notables undertook their pilgrimage shaped as a Bedouin tent. José Corti / Muséum national in the kingdom of Skandar”—none other than Alexan- d’histoire naturelle, Paris, 2002 openly accompanied by Christian servants or slaves. To some extent, these nineteenth and twentieth der I, Tsar of Russia and King of Poland—he appears to This was most likely facilitated by the fact that the sta- century European authors unveiled to their readers— have enjoyed great prestige among the tribes, although tus of a slave in Islam was quite similar to that of a practically under a seal of secrecy—this very part of he most likely exaggerated his own merits somewhat: child, in that they were not held responsible for some Arabia, described in the works of the aforementioned “I was compared to the favorite hero of the Arabs, the of their actions. A pilgrimage completed by a child or Muslim geographers and travelers, and which millions celebrated Antarah. My praises were sung in verse by a slave was consequently not considered as valid. This of pilgrims over the course of the centuries were already the tribes, and this is how my name spread across the was the case for the pilgrimage completed towards the familiar with. There were also other authors, and Euro- desert to the very ends of Arabia, as I later learnt, where end of the seventeenth century by a young Englishman pean travelers who directed their curiosity toward other all is novel, and where, under the spell of language, each who fell into slavery, John Pitts, in the company of his themes.