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À La Recherche De L'espace Perdu: Architecture, Urban Fabric, and French Travelers to Antioch (1784–1914)

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À La Recherche De L'espace Perdu: Architecture, Urban Fabric, and French Travelers to Antioch (1784–1914) $UFKLWHFWXUDO Açıkgöz, Ü F 2016 À La Recherche De L’Espace Perdu: Architecture, Urban Fabric, and French Travelers to Antioch (1784–1914). Architectural Histories, +LVWRULHV 4(1): 18, pp. 1–17, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ah.201 RESEARCH ARTICLE À La Recherche De L’Espace Perdu: Architecture, Urban Fabric, and French Travelers to Antioch (1784–1914) Ümit Fırat Açıkgöz Ottoman Antioch, a marginalized outpost by the late 18th century, attracted French travelers thanks to its illustrious Roman, Early Christian, and crusader histories. To make sense of the city, these travelers relied either on previous travelogues or on their own observations of the built environment. This article sheds light on the inter-textual relationship among travelogues, and on how both the built environment of Ottoman Antioch and representations of the pre-Islamic city and its monuments shaped the travelers’ narratives. The dramatic contrast between the insignificance of Ottoman Antioch and the grandeur of the pre-Islamic city prompted the travelers to reflect on the glories of Greco-Roman antiquity and the ‘decadence of the Oriental civilizations’. I focus on four French travelers who visited Antioch between 1780 and 1914, and argue that they turned the state of the city’s architecture and urban fabric into a critical tool to imagine their historical connections to the region, reproduce the Orientalist stereotypes in circulation in Europe at the time, and, thereby setting the tone for the colonization of the region. Introduction about the rest of the world and fuelling aspirations for Nineteenth-century Antioch was an underpopulated and expansion and conquest’ (Smethurst 2008: 1; Said 1979; sparsely built town, a far cry from its reputation as a lead- Behdad 1994). According to these studies, European ing city of the Roman Empire, inferior only to Rome and travelers paved the way for western intervention in the Alexandria (Fig. 1).1 Antioch was also a major early Chris- Middle East by generating and reproducing stereotypes tian center, the city where the followers of Jesus were about the region, and emphasizing its backwardness. first called Christians.2 Moreover, Antioch was the seat Some recent studies have called for nuancing this critical of a crusader state between 1098 and 1268.3 Most of the perspective, pointing out the potential of travel writing French travelers to late Ottoman Antioch were obsessed to question the validity of unitary identities (Edwards and with these three historical periods, and sought traces of Graulund 2010: 1). Others have emphasized the longer the Romans, the early Christians, and the crusaders. They trajectory of European encounters with the Middle East, were disillusioned to find only a few vestiges, such as a focusing on pre-18th century travelers, demonstrating cross on the city walls or a spoliated Roman column in a their various agendas, and, consequently, questioning the contemporary house, for the old monuments and urban notion of deep-rooted antagonism between the ‘East’ and fabric of Antioch had disappeared long ago due mostly to the ‘West’ (MacLean 2004).6 devastating earthquakes.4 The French travelers accounted Although they all had their own personal agendas, for contemporary Antioch, and the civilization (Ottoman, French travelers to Antioch from the late 18th century Muslim, Turkish, Arab, or ‘Oriental’5) it represented, only onwards operated within a remarkably similar discur- in comparison to the ancient and medieval city. With its sive framework. They consistently underscored historical reduced scale, dilapidated urban fabric, and lack of major links between France and the city through references to monuments, Ottoman Antioch helped French travelers to the Roman Empire, Christianity, and the crusades, accom- undergird the recurring motif of their travelogues: ancient panied with remarks about the ‘contemporary plight’ of glory of the region juxtaposed with its contemporary, ori- Antioch, which they saw as an outcome of the Ottoman/ ental decadence. Islamic civilization. Two historical phenomena distinguish In the past few decades, literary critics, cultural historians, French travelers from the rest of the European travelers and architectural and urban historians have explored travel to Antioch. The first involves the discourse of mission civi- writing from a variety of perspectives. Under the influence lisatrice, the trademark of French colonialism and impe- of the postcolonial turn, and especially of Edward Said’s rialism.7 As a celebration of French progress in the 19th Orientalism, most studies focused on the role of European century, and as an assertion of the self-proclaimed French travel writing ‘in producing and circulating knowledge duty to civilize the uncivilized, the discourse of mission civilisatrice took on a specific meaning in Ottoman Syria, or the Levant. Unlike their relationship with sub-Saharan Rice University, US Africa and Southeast Asia, the French claimed to have his- [email protected] torical ties with the Levant. They sought to justify their Art. 18, page 2 of 17 Açıkgöz: À La Recherche De L’Espace Perdu Figure 1: A 19th-century representation of Ottoman Antioch (Carne 1838: Plate 12). political intervention by emphasizing the inefficiency As a not-yet-colonized city, Antioch did not have modern, and backwardness of the Ottoman Empire. French travel- westernized neighborhoods to compare, for dramatic vis- ers aspired to ‘reintroduce civilization’ that had sunk into ual effect, with its old, dilapidated urban fabric. Instead, oblivion after the fall of the Roman Empire. The second French travelers juxtaposed the built environment of phenomenon is the French takeover of Syria in general Ottoman Antioch with the ancient grandeur of the city. and Antioch in particular in the aftermath of the World Because of a scarcity of visual testimonies about pre- War I, which fulfilled the travelers’ desires. Following Islamic Antioch, they relied on textual representations in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, France established such sources as previous travelers’ accounts. a mandate administration in Syria and Lebanon between This article examines the representations of Antioch in 1920 and 1946 (Antioch, part of the semi-autonomous the travelogues of four Frenchmen: Constantin François Sanjak of Alexandretta, joined Turkey in 1939) (Fig. 2). A de Chassebœuf, alias Volney, a champion of French major failure on the part of the proponents of mission civi- enlightenment; Jean-Joseph-François Poujoulat, a royal- lisatrice, the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon was ist historian of the crusades; Emile Le Camus, a Catholic characterized by political crises and mass uprisings.8 What priest; and Maurice Barrès, a romantic nationalist intel- interests me more is the large degree to which the man- lectual. These travelers visited Antioch in the early 1780s, date administration made use of French travel writing on early 1830s, 1888, and 1914, respectively. The period Ottoman Syria, and adopted its approaches to Syrian soci- between the 1780s and 1914 corresponds both to a time ety as well as architecture and urban environment. in which the existence of the Ottoman Empire was at In his discussion of British guidebooks and cultural stake, and to the increasing European domination of the imperialism, John Mackenzie argues that colonial world in political and economic terms.10 This larger histor- empires of the 19th century were ‘not only empires ical context informs these four travelogues, and connects of war, of economic exploitation’, but also ‘empires of them together despite the diverse personal agendas of travel’ (Mackenzie 2005). He shows how the British travel their authors. In other words, the fact that they were visit- guides for India consistently emphasized the growth ing an empire in decline as representatives of a European of modern towns and their westernized architecture, civilization in its political, cultural, and economic apogee and juxtaposed these with the insalubrious and decay- shaped the travelers’ approaches to Antioch and its built ing native Indian towns, hence confirming imperialist environment. tropes of oriental degeneration and western superiority.9 With the exception of Volney, these travelers devoted This representational strategy of contrast took on a dif- more substantial sections to Antioch in their travelogues ferent form in French travelers’ descriptions of Antioch. than most of their contemporaries.11 Despite the decades Açıkgöz: À La Recherche De L’Espace Perdu Art. 18, page 3 of 17 Figure 2: A contemporary map of Syria under the French Mandate. Antioch is in the northwest, immediately to the south of Alexandretta (Quinze Ans de Mandat 1936). that passed between journeys, and despite their different the day. After years of immersion in the Bible, travelogues, professions and interests, the travelogues of Poujoulat, Le the works of Renan, and histories of Hellenism, the Roman Camus, and Barrès reveal a common orientalist gaze with Empire, and the crusades, the view of Antioch had thrilled similar sensibilities, references, and discursive strategies. him even right before he entered the city: Nonetheless, following Peter Burke’s advice against writ- ing about orientalism without orientalists (Burke 1999), I Old Antioch! It is from here that the crusaders saw pay particular attention to the individual agendas of these her. How beautiful, moving she is, and how we travelers. I begin my analysis with Volney’s travelogue, desire her! I knew well that
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