r Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae The N!tion!l Art The civil war of images in Beirut Saloon Dimes of freedom World Knocking Luxor down just to build it up Last Word The cold comfort of Jingle Bell Rock

The Turkish holding company Alarko, a major conglomerate of energy, construc- The upstart newspaper Taraf has thrust tion and tourism firms, resides in a pink former psychiatric hospital up in the itself into the centre of Turkish politics hills off Istanbul’s stunning shore road, on the European side of the city, across with a series of courageous challenges from a seaside dance club called Reina. In December, I went to Alarko to meet with to the military and the government. its chairman, a Turkish-Jewish business- Eye of man named Ishak Alaton. Alaton founded Circulation is up – but the advertisers Alarko in 1954 with another Turkish Jew, Uzeyir Garih, and the two ran the firm to- are gone. Suzy Hansen reports from gether until Garih was stabbed to death in 2001 by a young soldier while visiting a Istanbul on the perils of publishing in cemetery in Istanbul. At the time the mur- der was seen as the random act of a violent the age of Ergenekon psychopath, absent religious or political motivation. But the week that I went to see the storm Alaton, prosecutors reopened the case, sive Ergenekon indictment contained lent sense of comedic timing, and punc- suggesting that the murder was linked to allegations that the group had been con- tuated his sentences with dramatic paus- a mysterious ultranationalist gang called nected to a secret intelligence unit of the es and heavy syllables, as if he admired Ergenekon, whose intrigues have captivat- military police called JITEM, which some the oeuvre of Chris Rock. “Taraf is good, ed and horrified Turks for the last year. say has carried out extrajudicial killings but I mean, Ergenekon isn’t news to me,” The cab driver who took me to Alarko in Kurdish areas. He talked about Taraf, he said. “All Kurds know about Ergene- was a Kurdish man born in the south- a one-year-old, left-liberal newspaper, kon.” (Pause.) “We’ve all known about eastern city of Mardin. In the privacy of which had distinguished itself by re- Ergenekon since we were children.” the car, he delivered a long rant about lentlessly covering the Ergenekon gang. (Pause.) “Kurdish babies know about Er- the injustices the Kurds had suffered at The goofy but handsome driver, a John genekon. Everyone’s JITEM. Everyone.” the hands of the state, which in Turkey Turturro kind of guy, threw his hands essentially means the military. The mas- around, laughing a lot. He had an excel- Taraf, continued on 4 → The N!tion!l 02 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae review th saloon Where freedom isn’t free

Small, patriotic pieces of cardboard are common coin for US military airmen

The price of freedom is a matter al bird. British banknotes feature -out wreckage. The soldiers, wear- war film. and they seem to serve a moti- open to some debate. Thomas Jef- images of the Queen and of civili- ing full combat gear, hold machine A third 25 cent coin, which can be vational purpose. ferson claimed it was eternal vigi- sation-advancing Englishmen like guns at their side. exchanged at the Pizza Hut, shows “They are strange little nug- lance. But it turns out the price of Charles Darwin. And Emirati legal Freedom, judging by this coin, three young boy scouts, probably gets of propaganda,” said freedom – or at least its exchange tender features falcons, dhows and looks like a mess, and is worth con- from the 1950s, standing in front one southern American man value – is 25 cents. – on the 20 dirham note – an image siderably less than the $416 billion of a memorial to fallen soldiers. working on the base. “In eve- That’s the case, at least, on the of the Dubai Creek Golf Club. (Dh1.5 trillion) the Pentagon con- Other pogs substitute for 5 cent rything you do, there is always base used by the US Air Force in But the US military-base pogs may firmed the Iraq War had cost up to and 10 cent coins, although those some little reminder of the Abu Dhabi, an oasis of American- be – and perhaps this is not so sur- January 2008. are more rare. agenda. ism whose precise location is not prising – among the most bombas- Another 25 cent pog – whose val- Such is the fascination with the “I find it amusing to a degree. You meant to be a matter of public tic, patriotic coins ever produced. ue amounts to a bit less than one pogs in the outside world they can know, I am buying a sandwich, I knowledge. Behind the well-guard- The face of one 25 cent pog fea- dirham, for those minding the sell online for more than eight don’t need to be reminded to be ed entrance, dollars are exchanged tures not a historic American fig- freedom exchange rate – commem- times their value on a base, even a patriot all the time, so lay off as freely as they are from Alabama ure, but the proud words “Opera- orates Operation Enduring Free- though they are not legal tender in for two minutes,” he said. “No- to Wyoming. The problem arises tion Iraqi Freedom”, boldly printed dom, the US military operation in the civilian economy. One pack of body is going to forget the mis- when an airman needs change for over the image of two seemingly Afghanistan. It shows two soldiers, 12 Middle Eastern-themed pogs, sion.” the drink he just bought at The shell-shocked soldiers standing in one male and one female, staring which includes one five-cent pog Thirsty Camel, the on-base bar, or the rubble of a bombed building, into the distance of the desert, as if featuring a dolphin equipped with Roland Hughes for the greasy slice of pepperoni with flames still licking the burnt attending roll-call in a blockbuster a spy-camera to scout under ships, * wolfed down afterwards at the Piz- is on sale for $17 on an aficionado za Hut. US coins are generally not website. Pogs for the British Army in circulation on the base, so the feature camels and famous foot- solution is simple – the Air Force ballers such as Steven Gerrard and makes its own. Frank Lampard. But they gener- Just as UAE supermarkets some- ally sell for much less than their times give shoppers chewing US equivalents online. gum when they have no change, The discs were first used on customers on the base are giv- military bases during the en small “pogs” – discs of thin Vietnam War. But the word cardboard that stand in for the “pog” originated in Hawaii, different denominations of from a children’s game that American coins, which can be used bottle tops from Pas- redeemed only at certain base sionfruit, Orange and Guava retail outlets. (POG) drinks. It’s not unusual for the images Why not use actual coins? on currency to veer towards nation- Apparently, cardboard pogs are al self-promotion. American coins cheaper to ship around the world display the heads of dead presi- than considerably heavier metal dents, monuments and the nation- dimes, quarters and nickels. That, Rich-Joseph Facun / The National Not on my watch

Looking for a Rolex embossed with a bureaucratic seal? Try Abu Dhabi’s second-hand gold shops

It’s a collector’s dream: a delicate, Mauritanians who have worked vintage, gold Piaget watch, set with a long time in the army,” Habib sparkling diamonds, from the ear- says. Less expensive embossed ly 1980s. Very rare, Habib assures timepieces are sometimes given to " me – especially the markings on graduating police or army cadets. If my salary is low, Who you know the watch-face. A close inspection Other people who pawn their like a couple of reveals the colourful, intricate logo watches – like one woman who of the Gulf Cooperation Council, brought in a diamond-bejewelled thousand a month, commemorating a summit held piece with Sheikh Zayed’s image how can I wear a in Bahrain in 1982, a year after the on the face – have worked directly council was formed. for high-profile families. “Some- Dh20,000 watch? I Dozens of other pieces in Habib’s times maids or drivers are given have to sell it locked display case also appear to the watches as gifts,” says Habib. helps. What have special markings: some em- “But if my salary is low, like a cou- bossed with flags and horses, oth- ple of thousand a month, how can ers with police-, ministry- and gov- I wear a Dh20,000 watch? I have to ernment department crests. sell it.” Frequently given as gifts to long- Though many people pawn le- serving employees, customised gitimate gifts for quick access to and commemorative watches cash, the stores are also wary of you know sets often wind up in gold shops in other possible, more unsavory rea- the capital, where high-end ho- sons behind a hasty bid to sell. A rological pieces can fetch tens of system has been developed by the thousands of dirhams. The asking police to trace stolen items: if you price for the Piaget, for instance, is don’t have an original receipt for Dh25,000. the watch you’re selling, a quick Some of the watch owners might visit to the on-site CID officer is you apart. part with their Concords or Ebels required before the sale will be ac- because they need the cash, says cepted. A picture of the seller’s ID Habib, an Iranian manager at one and the item are taken, filed elec- store. Others, like the former own- tronically and compared against er of one particular never-worn reports of thefts. Several stolen Rolex, can’t find any use for their items have apparently been recov- gift. Muslim men are not supposed ered this way. to wear gold, Habib explains, hold- Every now and then, someone ing up the Dh20,000 bright yellow from the wealthy classes – who watch with a police logo stamped clearly doesn’t need the extra cash on the face. “It’s a very good piece,” – will also sell off a commemora- the shop manager says, “but he’s tive watch. For the super-wealthy, not going to give a gold watch to his Habib speculates, there might be a son or another close relative, so he stigma attached to wearing a luxu- had to sell it.” ry watch embossed with a govern- Rolexes are preferred gifts here, ment department’s logo. Habib says, while other brands are “Maybe they feel that people more prized in Saudi Arabia and would ask whether they could af- Oman. But in all three countries, ford to buy one for themselves,” your status is reflected in the watch says Habib. you receive. The brand of timepiece There is a healthy market for the an employee is given may be deter- second-hand watches – composed mined by his place in the pecking of about 70 per cent foreigners and order of an organisation, or by the 30 per cent Emirati collectors, Ha- sector in which he works. bib estimates. But business has For instance, technical-looking not been immune to the credit more to think about Breitling watches, known for their crunch. www.thenational.ae association with the aviation sec- “If I said yes, business is perfect, tor, are often bequeathed to pilots you would know it’s not true,” Ha- For an introductory subscription offer of 300Dhs, we’ll keep you informed and stimulated or long-serving air force workers. bib says frankly. “But the watches for an entire year. Call 800 2220 to subscribe. Top end watches often go to high- still sell.” ranking Emirati officials and to “Yemenis, Sudanese, Egyptians, * Zoi Constantine The N!tion!l Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae 03 review th

thethe big idea week the tangled web !!! " Republicans shamed by CD parody A leading contender to become chairman of the Republican Party has left senior officials horrified after he distributed a CD featuring a parody song called Barack the Magic Negro. At a time when the party seeks to recover from heavy electoral defeats in November – and amid calls that it should reach out to younger and ethnically diverse voters – the emergence of the paro- dy, sung to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon, has left many Repub- licans cringing. Chip Saltsman, a former leader of Tennessee Republicans, who is seeking to take over the party’s national committee, sent the CD to party members as a Christmas gift. But unlike him, few found it funny. The ditty, written by Paul Shanklin, a conservative parodist, al- ludes to an opinion piece penned by the black writer David Ehren- stein in the Los Angeles Times last year headlined Obama the Magic Negro. In the article the author argued that voting for the “warm and unthreatening” Mr Obama helped whites to alleviate guilt over the country’s past racial injustices. The song has been played by Rush Limbaugh on his conservative talk radio show. “Barack the Magic Negro,” it begins, “made guilty whites feel good/They’ll vote for him and not for me/Cos he’s not from the hood.” Mr Saltsman, who managed Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, was unrepentant, calling on Republi- can leaders to defend the CD. Mem- bers of the national committee, he said, had the “good humour and sense” to see the song as one of several “lighthearted political parodies”.

Tim Reid To its detractors, Egypt’s government appears to be working with the US and Israel against the Palestinians, an impression not dispelled by pictures like this one of The Sunday Times Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni enjoying a friendly meeting with Hosni Mubarak. Amr Dalsh / Reuters timesonline.co.uk Publisher cancels holocaust memoir Berkley Books, a unit of Penguin Books, has cancelled the planned February publication of Angel at the Fence, a memoir by Herman Rosenblat, a man who said he met his wife while a prisoner at a con- centration camp during the Holocaust. In Mr. Rosenblat’s story, he said he met his wife Roma Radzicki Revive la resistance while he was a teenage prisoner at a sub-camp of the Buchenwald camp in Germany. He wrote in Angel at the Fence that she was liv- ing on a nearby farm disguised as a Christian and would sneak him apples at the camp’s fence, and that they reunited in Coney Island more than a decade later. Several Holocaust scholars attacked the story in the blogosphere and in a recent article in The New Republic, noting among other Israel’s assault on Gaza may cripple Hamas, but it will embolden those things that it would have been impossible for the pair to meet at a fence because of the camp’s layout. in Arab politics who would rather fight than talk, writes Nathan Field In a statement Saturday evening, Berkley Books, which had earlier defended the book, said it decided to cancel publication “after re- The bloody carnage from Israel’s treaties and billions of dollars in Egypt – for the current crisis are regime, burdened with a poor econ- ceiving new information from Herman Rosenblat’s agent, Andrea bombardment of the Gaza Strip American aid give Egypt very little pan-Arab newspapers like Al Quds omy and preoccupied with a pos- Hurst.” Craig Burke, director of publicity at Berkley, declined to has dominated the Arab media room to manoeuvre, even if it were al Arabi and the Egyptian opposi- sible succession crisis, is weak and elaborate. Berkley said it was demanding that Rosenblat and Hurst since the bombs began to drop on inclined to do so. But the govern- tion paper Al Dostor. Their common unable to resist American pressure. return all money received so far. Saturday, and the rising death toll ment is under extreme pressure theme is that the Egyptian regime With the Obama administration Through Hurst, Rosenblat also released a statement Sunday: “To has filled Arab streets with rage from its citizens to use its influence has sold out to Washington and expected to seek a rapprochement all who supported and believed in me and this story, I am sorry for – especially in countries aligned to push for Palestinian statehood. Tel Aviv. Hardly a week goes by that with Iran and Syria, Tamem wrote, all I have caused to you and every one else in the world.” with the United States. In Egypt, This was an easier task when Fatah Fahmy Huwedi, one of Egypt’s most Hamas has bet on the right horse. He added: “Why did I do that and write the story huge protests have erupted with an was in power: both parties agreed influential columnists, does not re- Hamas, for its part, actively sought with the girl and the apple, because I wanted to intensity not seen in recent years. on the means and the ends, negotia- peat some variation of this theme in an escalation in violence at the close bring happiness to people, to remind them But Israel’s air strikes, taking Ha- tions concluding in a two-state solu- Al Dostor. One late October column, of the six-month ceasefire, perhaps not to hate, but to love and tolerate all peo- mas as their putative target, have tion. But Hamas, which now domi- for example, sarcastically suggested with an eye toward the victory of the ple. I brought good feelings to a lot of people highlighted a rift in the Arab world nates Palestinian politics, is not that the Egyptian government treats Likud hardliner Benjamin Netanya- and I brought hope to many. My motivation that has been evident since Hamas formally committed to either – and the leaders of Hamas with scorn but hu in Israel’s upcoming elections – was to make good in this world.” defeated Fatah in the 2006 Pales- most Egyptians support Hamas’s opens its arms to “every Tom, Dick which would surely lend credence to tinian legislative elections. It is, right to resistance and its use of and Harry with a pro-US orienta- the argument that no negotiations Motoko Rich at its root, a battle of approaches suicide attacks, and do not disagree tion.” He noted that the Hamas with Israel are possible. Well before New York Times – a conflict between the negotia- with its refusal to recognise Israel. prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, the expiration of the ceasefire Ha- artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com tors and the rejectionists, between That Hamas represents the Pal- managed only a brief meeting with mas leaders made their opposition those Fatah supporters who blame estinian branch of the Muslim Egypt’s foreign minister during a to its renewal clear, with the expecta- Hamas for initiating conflict with Brotherhood poses another sharp recent visit to Cairo. By contrast, tion that a return to violence would Locked and Loaded Israel, and those Hamas backers dilemma for the Egyptian regime, Huwedi wrote, the Lebanese Chris- create conditions to bolster their From their newest label cut in June of ‘08 titled Connected: Max who paint Fatah and its Arab allies which refuses to acknowledge the tian politician and former warlord support and diminish Fatah. Impact & Silver Wings, comes one of The USAF Band’s hottest new as complicit in Israeli atrocities. Ikhwan in Egypt. Talking with the Samir Geagea, a member of the The mood today in the Palestinian songs, Locked and Loaded. The song was written and recorded by The “negotiation” front, led by Palestinian Brotherhood creates an pro-US March 14 coalition “whose territories is one of anger and desire members of the Band’s rock group Max Impact who are directly Egypt – the first Arab state to make awkward precedent, and co-opera- hands are covered with Palestin- for revenge. Fatah has been pushed back from playing the tune on deployment throughout the US Cen- peace with Israel – advocates peace- tion between Egypt and the Gazan ian blood”, received a full audience to the margins of Palestinian poli- tral Command Area Of Responsibility (AOR). ful dialogue with the Jewish state. leadership has been limited only to with Mubarak. tics and seems likely to suffer a per- After a rigorous tour, Max Impact rocked out singing over 68 per- Since the late 1980s, this has been security arrangements, with a series Fatah – and its more moderate ap- manent dent to its reputation. So formances throughout the region. The band performed not only for the path preferred by the Palestin- of conflicts over border closures. proach – are not without support in far the widespread, though perhaps deployed Airmen and other service members, but also performed ian leadership, which supported the To its detractors, therefore, the the media, most prominently from predictable, consensus in the Ara- for children at local orphanages, schools, and even for students at a Oslo framework and sought a two- Mubarak government appears pro-Saudi media outlets like the bic media is that Hamas is the chief music conservatory. state solution through a peace proc- to be working with the US and Is- London pan-Arab newspaper Asharq beneficiary. With powerful and dynamic lyrics, each stanza of Locked and ess sponsored by the United States. rael against the Palestinians – an al Awsat, the Al Arabiya satellite The moderate Arab regimes, ac- Loaded is meant to exhibit the complete synergy of each imperative The rejectionists – Hamas and its impression not dispelled by the channel, and Cairo’s semi-official Al cording to Abdel Bari Atwan, the component of the fight. For instance, lyrics for the combat control allies – were sidelined during the pictures published last week of Is- Ahram newspaper. They blame the editor of Al Quds al Arabi, have lost Airmen who are calling in the drop says: false optimism of the Oslo years, raeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni conflict on Hamas, arguing that its the most from this week’s carnage “Walk in the shade of the clouds at night,” but they did not disappear. The enjoying a friendly handshake with intransigence and unrealistic un- – and, it must be said, Egypt is fore- “Crawling in the dirt, calling an A-10 strike,” advocates of resistance argue that her Egyptian counterpart in Cairo willingness to compromise are at most among them. On Tuesday “Dancing in the shadows, lives are on the line,” without the threat of continued shortly before the attack began. As the root of the impasse. But the ris- alone protests were reported out- “Bombs are gonna fall, just in time.” violence Israel has no incentive to one prominent Egyptian intellectu- ing tally of dead Palestinians makes side Egyptian embassies in Syria, The lead singer for Locked and Loaded, MSgt Ryan Carson, whose make compromises for peace; as the al recently told me: “nothing dam- such arguments irrelevant – they are Libya and Yemen. favourite phrase at the beginning of each concert is, “We’re going to Oslo process ground to a halt, and ages the legitimacy of the Egyptian drowned out by calls for solidarity The fury of the protesters was rock your face off!” started out as an Opera Major at the University of collapsed entirely after 2000, sup- regime more than its policy towards that surely benefit Hamas. given voice by the Hizbollah leader Wyoming when the Air Force picked him up. Carson wanted to help port for the resistance camp grew Palestine.” Even before Israel’s attack on Hassan Nasrallah, who called open- the Airmen focus on why you do what you do for the Air Force. among Palestinians and among the Almost three years after Hamas Gaza the pro-resistance crowd was ly for the Egyptian people to reject “I told the guys in the band, ‘Don’t ever take our job for granted, be- broader Arab public, particularly won the elections, the Palestinians radiating confidence that long- their government’s policies in Gaza cause you could save a life tonight,’” said Carson. “There might be in Egypt and Jordan. The second are more divided than ever, unable term trends were working in its fa- – an unprecedented public attack somebody out there tonight that doesn’t want to be here anymore, but Palestinian intifada was slowly but to form a unified front, much less vour, and Hamas – which appeared that brought harsh criticism from if we give them a little piece of home, and a little bit of encouragement, steadily crushed by Israel, but this discuss negotiations with Israel. surprised by the overwhelming Egypt. But most Egyptians prefer then they remember all those people who love them back home, and did not discredit Hamas, which de- As the response to the current at- Israeli response to its recent Qas- Nasrallah to their own leaders, and the way life really is, and they might just change their mind.” feated Fatah at the polls and then tack shows, the Arab media – and sam launches – certainly seemed his salvo will only further damage Gripping and compelling to their deployed audiences, one Army violently took complete control of regional governments – are divided to believe this was the case. Yet this the regime’s popularity. soldier told singer MSgt Ryan Carson after the concert. “I’ll be do- the Gaza Strip. as well, with each side accusing the shift in the direction of the resist- Egypt, ironically enough, had been ing my morning PT to this one. Your iPod is your weapon over there, The Israeli attack on Gaza – no other of obstructing unity. ance is likely to be accelerated by attempting in recent months to set if you don’t have it you’re lost.” matter how it is framed by Israel Among those who blame the Arab the Israeli onslaught. up a rapprochement with Hizbol- – seems likely to mark a turning states friendly to the US – especially Palestinian presidential and par- lah as a means of increasing its in- Joseph Fordham point in the contest between these liamentary elections are scheduled fluence in Lebanon, but those plans airforcelive.blogspot.com loose alliances, tipping the scales for 2009, and they will present a fur- now seem a distant dream. definitively toward Hamas and ther opportunity for Hamas to so- Sometimes the best advice is “be company. For the foreseeable fu- lidify its control of Palestinian poli- careful what you wish for”. Israel ture, the Arab debate on Israel is tics. If Hamas, already in control of may manage to destroy the Hamas going to be dominated by the self- The advocates of the parliament, can take more seats infrastructure in Gaza and serious- styled forces of resistance – and if and the presidency, the remaining ly damage its ability to fight back, not by Hamas, then by something resistance argue moderate Arab regimes will be un- which may in turn further divide the even more extreme. that without the able to ignore them. Palestinians. But it could also open The Hamas victory in the 2006 threat of continued At the same time, regional shifts the door for factions more extreme elections posed a serious challenge in the balance of power appear to than Hamas to hijack the mantle to Fatah and its allies in Egypt, Jor- violence Israel has favour Hamas. In a recent column, of resistance, including those that azarovic dan and Saudi Arabia. All were com- no incentive to Hussam Tamem, the editor of share the worldview of al Qa’eda. mitted to the Oslo approach and IslamOnline, a pro-Islamist web- Given the anger coursing through the pursuit of negotiations with Is- make compromises site, argued that Hamas’s decision the Arab world, they would not have rael on the basis of the agreements for peace to align itself with Syria and Iran to search hard for new recruits. signed in the 1990s. was a sign of the changing times, a The problem was perhaps most reflection that Egypt at present has Nathan Field is a journalist based in

acute for the Egyptians: 30 years of little to offer as an ally. The Egyptian Cairo and Washington. L Sarah by Illustrations The N!tion!l 04 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae review Number of articles in Turkish law that restrict speech th 39 In Turkey, one’s newspaper is a bit like one’s football team, and many old, established Turkish companies probably wouldn’t have Taraf

“Taraf is doing something very precious,” said Soli Ozel, a professor at Bilgi University and columnist at the newspaper delivered to their offices Sabah. “By and large, they have been able to set the agenda in the country.”

“We now have a readership,” Yasemin Congar says, “which is not only leftists and urban youth, or only conservatives or liberals, or only the Kurds or Turks, but all of these people.”

→ Taraf, continued from 1 rival columnists have embraced the Islamic leader Fethullah Gulen, is books on Turkey and lives on-and- pletely missing from Turkish soci- boasting a sparkly economic record paper as the “hope” of Turkish jour- an exquisitely designed broadsheet off in Istanbul. “In a framework ety for the last 200 years. They are and facing no respectable opposi- But what Kurdish babies take for nalism. catering to religious conservatives, where counter-discourse can get real democrats. I don’t know what tion, again soared to power in the granted, many Turks only half-be- In the often unreliable world of and is largely supportive of AKP. you hauled into court or worse, hu- else to call them.” July 2007 election. A religious man, lieve, and foreigners are inclined to Turkish newspapers, Taraf distin- (They boast one of the highest circu- mour and wit may be the only ‘safe’ And indeed, people seem to have Abdullah Gul, became president, dismiss entirely. This year, Taraf, as guished itself by asking ugly ques- lations, according to one source, at forms.” “I’m amazed it hasn’t been a hard time classifying Taraf – the and the staunchly secular military if spinning a serial novella on Turk- tions: about the military’s perform- around 650,000; Hurriyet sells about shut down,” she added. word “leftist” in Turkey has been confronted reality: the pious guys ish violence, may have single-hand- ance against the militant separatists 550,000 copies, Milliyet 200,000 and Instead, Taraf has continued to subjected to a number of contra- had the money, and they were here edly forced every Turk to reckon of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party Radikal only 40,000). A fifth major grow. “Taraf managed to reach a cir- dictory interpretations. To Berktay, to stay. Left-liberal intellectuals, with the mounting evidence. (PKK) and about the army’s domi- paper, Sabah, was recently sold to a culation which went over 90,000 at who is often described as the first largely lacking a political party, and Ergenekon is, as the Turks beau- nant role in Turkish politics; about holding firm, Calik, seen as close to one point, but also managed to get Turkish historian to recognise the charmed by AKP’s European Un- tifully call it, the derin devlet – the the prime minister’s commitment to AKP. Cumhuriyet, a small, text-heavy, a permanent readership of between Armenian genocide, there is a com- ion-looking promises and the op- “deep state” – a shadowy force ap- human rights; and of course, about serious paper, serves the old-guard 50-60,000,” Congar said. “At the be- mon thread that unites those who portunity for a real counterweight parently connected to the army, Ergenekon. The prelude to true dem- secular elite. And there are many, ginning what looked realistic to me support the EU as a way of assur- against the military establishment, plying the strings of Turkish power. ocratic reform, the paper seemed to many others – too many to charac- was 35,000 at most. We now have a ing support for human rights, who threw their small, but high-minded The idea of a deep state has been insist, was a truly open and free plat- terise – but few of them bucked the readership which is not only leftists support the rights of the Kurds, the support behind AKP. Here was an around since the 1970s, but this form for spirited debate. status quo with the same intellec- and urban youth, or only conserva- right to wear headscarves, and the interesting alignment: liberals, year the Ergenekon mafia has been “Taraf has probably enormously tual gravitas as Taraf. tives or liberals, or only the Kurds or right to criticise the army for its po- religious conservatives, economy- formally accused of committing contributed to Turkey’s relative de- Language tips off a paper’s read- Turks, but all of these people. There litical interventions. “The neo-na- first voters, and some Kurds, versus crimes in the name of neo-national- mocratisation over the past year,” ership: Zaman, more religious, will is a good segment of religious con- tionalists in this country have creat- nationalists, secularists, Alevis (a ism, secularism, and anti-Kurdish said Halil Berktay, a Turkish public employ Arabic words; Cumhuriyet, a servatives in our readership which ed their own gravediggers,” Berktay beleaguered liberal Muslim sect sentiment. The allegations include intellectual and professor of history nationalist paper, will use as much was a surprise because we’re not re- said. And Taraf, he continued, rep- that feels rightfully threatened by everything from the assassination at Sabanci University who contrib- Turkish as the language allows. You ligious or conservative.” resents “a new morality.” AKP’s fervent Sunni Islam), and of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink utes a column to Taraf twice a week. could divide how people vote rough- Taraf has also succeeded in at- young, liberal-minded Turks who to plotting a coup against the rul- “It has been like a flash of lightning.” ly according to the newspapers they tracting marquee names to its pag- """""""""""""""" couldn’t quite abide what they saw ing Islamic conservative AK Party. Taraf owes its boldness to a lux- read – AKP die-hards might read Za- es; writers like the esteemed intel- as Turkey’s version of the American The Turkish media have been un- ury that is increasingly rare – and man, secularists prefer Hurriyet and lectual Murat Belge; the Economist’s Turks often must take sharply- Christian Right. derstandably preoccupied with the not just in Turkey: an independ- Cumhuriyet. Leftists favour Radikal, Turkey correspondent, Amberin Za- drawn sides on complicated issues AKP immediately pushed hard to endless stream of sensational reve- ent owner who does not interfere which boasts some of the country’s man; the prominent Armenian writ- – you’re either for the military or the allow women to wear headscarves lations emerging from the trial, but with the work of his editors. Taraf’s best liberal columnists, though er Etyen Mahcupyan; the founders government, for secularism or Is- on university campuses, a sticking Taraf, an upstart daily founded by a founder Basar Arslan, a 40-year-old some have decamped – along with of the clever activist group Young lam, for headscarves or miniskirts, point among the military elite and book publisher and a team of liber- bookstore owner and publisher, their readers – to Taraf. Civilians, Turgay and Yildiray Ogur; for Kurds or the Turks. In 2008, secularists determined to preserve al journalists, has done more than wasn’t particularly active in poli- Taraf eschews the paeans to the the columnist Gokhan Ozgun; and picking a team became at once Ataturk’s legacy of laicism. Had any other paper to place Ergenekon tics before launching Taraf, and he Turkish state typical of the other many others. Some of these writers more important and more confus- AKP proved that all they really cared front and centre. still shies away from the public eye. papers and hews to an antination- are beloved figures in Turkey, and ing, and Taraf’s evolution as the about was headscarves? Sometimes In Turkey, one’s newspaper is a bit (He did not respond to questions alist line. Yasemin Congar pointed none are radicals, but they do repre- voice of the left – as supporters, and it seems all anyone cares about in like one’s football team, and many for this story.) But according to his out that even on national holidays, sent a cross-section of the liberal es- then critics, of AKP – was a study in Turkey is headscarves. But, it turned old, established Turkish companies editors, he had always wanted to when all the other papers drape tablishment, the sort of people who this volatility. “Taraf is doing some- out that Turkish politics were not, in probably wouldn’t have Taraf deliv- own a newspaper – and he called up their front pages with red flags and might have lent their names to the thing very precious,” said Soli Ozel, fact, all about headscarves, because ered to their offices. In some circles, a few of his friends to recruit them photos of Turkey’s founder-hero recent high-profile petition-apol- a professor at Bilgi University and soon enough came Ergenekon. that would simply look leftist, anti- to produce a small daily that repre- Ataturk, Taraf abstains from patri- ogy to Armenians for crimes during columnist at the newspaper Sabah. Ergenekon may be an unfamil- establishment, bad. When I met sented their liberal views, what he otic displays. “It’s slightly irrever- World War I. “By and large, they have been able to iar word, and if foreign journalists with Alaton, however, he had a copy envisioned as “a very prestigious, ent in tone,” said Jenny White, a “[Taraf] is oppositional simply on set the agenda in the country.” haven’t taken pains to write about on his desk. The paper had been independent paper,” according to professor of anthropology at Boston the grounds of democracy,” said That agenda has twisted and it, that’s because it’s too hard to ex- painfully digging into his partner’s Yasemin Congar, an editor, who University who has written many Berktay. “And that has been com- turned dramatically since AKP, plain. Some Turks feel AKP’s god- murder case, but no matter. “I sup- added: “Now he loves it.” fearing minions have manufac- port Taraf’s existence,” Alaton said, But at first they thought he was tured the Ergenekon myth to take “because I think it’s a very good con- crazy. Three heavyweights signed down the secular establishment. tribution to democracy.” Alaton is on anyway: the bestselling novelist For Americans like myself – with known for his progressive views – he and columnist Ahmet Altan, and our cheerful tendency to dismiss founded TESEV, one of Turkey’s two veteran journalists, Congar and everything hard and ugly as a “con- most important liberal think tanks Alev Er. A laundry list of spiracy theory” – Ergenekon mostly – and at age 81, he has been witness In Turkey, a large segment of the inspires incredulity. Could one to his country’s many undemocratic mainstream media is controlled by ridiculous laws loosely connected group of 86 peo- episodes; his memory is long. When one man, Aydin Dogan, who owns can be dispensed ple, hailing from various sectors of I asked why Turkish corporations the popular papers Hurriyet, Mil- polite society, really be responsible had recently refused to advertise in liyet, and Radikal, as well as TV sta- willy-nilly to shut for decades of assassinations, coup Taraf, I was not entirely surprised tions and various other business someone up, and plots, and bombings? when he replied, “They are afraid.” concerns. Hurriyet and Milliyet are most of the targets Over the past year, Turks watched more nationalist; Radikal more lib- as ex-generals (real generals!), jour- """""""""""""""" eral. “We have seen an increasing are not figures nalists (including old famous ones), cartelisation of the press and much of international and lawyers were hauled off to jail Taraf’s struggle for survival in more organic links between the and charged with a vast right-wing some ways mirrors Turkey’s awk- press and political factions,” said renown whose trials conspiracy to wreak havoc on the ward lurch toward full democracy. Berktay. “It’s the Turkish version attract the world’s nation. The 2500 page indictment During its first year, the paper’s of the Berlusconi phenomenon. attention read like A Recent History of Turk- unprecedented challenges to the In fact, if Dogan came to power it ish Violence, and it seemed like military, and then the government, would be a very precise parallel.” every bad deed of the past 20 years have scared off advertisers, even as Zaman, another heavy-hitting pop- A scene from the paper’s Kadikoy offices: “They are real democrats,” the historian was laid at the feet of Ergenekon. Taraf’s readership has grown and ular paper backed by followers of the Halil Berktay says. “I don’t know what else to call them.” The journalist Andrew Finkel wrote The N!tion!l Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae 05 review Number of people charged with violations of Article 301, for th 1,189 “insulting the Turkish nation”, in the first quarter of 2007

Yasemin Congar, deputy editor-in-chief of Taraf. “You hear it in journalism circles,” the Turkish historian Halil Berktay said. “So many people admire and envy Taraf. They will say, ‘Let’s face it: If our informants brought us the same information from inside the military, we wouldn’t have published it.’” Photographs by Kerem Uzel for The National

an astute column called, “Ergene- er publish leaked documents from was supposed to do as the prime Turkey, and this scepticism speaks laundry list of ridiculous laws can be fice. Most of them we don’t.” kon ate my homework,” and that’s inside the military suggesting that minister, which was to question volumes about Turkey’s hard-to- dispensed willy-nilly to shut some- “I used to take the ferry [to Kadikoy] exactly how it felt. Worse, a terrify- the army knew in advance of the the military rather than question- explain but insidiously suffocating one up, and most of the victims are all the time, and Ahmet told me not ing list of new assassination targets Daglica attack. ing us,” Congar said. “And then on atmosphere. not figures of international renown to do that,” she added. “Not because turned up in the rubble of the whirl- “We really pursued that story, the Kurdish issue he started speak- In some ways, Turkey can feel as whose trials attract the world’s at- they’re going to kill me, but some- wind investigation: Prime Minis- and when they decided that those ing like a Turkish nationalist, not a free as any other developed nation, tention. one could say something. And Ah- ter Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Orhan eight soldiers were to be made reformer, and started saying things but deeply-held fears readily stran- This is why, when Taraf first ap- met carries a gun. But he always car- Pamuk, the journalist Fehmi Koru. scapegoats, we said ‘no way,’” Con- that didn’t embrace the Kurds. He gle dissent. Memories of military peared in the fall of 2007, one friend ried a gun. Alev carries a gun. These Ergenekon’s goal, the conventional gar said. “They were arrested and has slowed down in the reforms coups and the steady creep of a vio- of mine, a young Kurdish academic, guys like guns, it’s not like they have wisdom went, was to foment so blamed for acting like agents for again. But when you talk to his peo- lent neo-nationalism make ordinary had no doubt as to its fate: “I don’t to carry guns. But it also shows me much chaos that the army would be PKK. We didn’t buy it. Other news- ple they say, ‘OK, there are things in Turks scared to do or say the wrong see how a paper like this will last,” that they feel more secure having a forced to step in, stage a coup, and papers did not go after it at all,” the making and, yes, we are behind thing, and paranoid about ulterior he’d said. “They’re going to shut it gun. They don’t want a bodyguard overthrow the AK Party. she went on. “We ask questions: our promises,’” she said. “So we’re motives. down.” After all, in April 2007, the after them all the time. And this is Ultimately, the ongoing Ergene- What happened? Why wasn’t the sceptical, but it’s not like we don’t This climate of fear goes beyond magazine Nokta was closed for pub- all partly because of what happened kon investigation was seen as a tri- commander at the post that night? believe in him anymore. It’s just our Turkey’s notorious anti-speech lishing the diaries of a military of- to Hrant Dink.” umph over thuggery, neo-national- There are all kinds of things that in- job to push him or to push anyone.” laws, though those have a lot to do ficer who revealed coup plots within Altan is likely the most famous ism, and strident secularism. But it dicated to us that there was a lack of with it. The infamous Article 301, the army. figure on Taraf’s staff. His novels polarised secularists who thought security – we knew, we felt, that the """""""""""""""" which prohibits “insulting the Taraf has not been shut down, and and nonfiction have sold millions the religious government was up to commanders were responsible. I’m Turkish nation,” swept Orhan Pa- in November the paper celebrated of copies. He comes from a well- dirty tricks, and puzzled many oth- not saying necessarily it was a con- Who would go this far in attacking muk to a much-publicised trial and its first birthday. On Istanbul’s known leftist family, and during ers who felt the prosecution was out spiracy altogether, but they did not not only the army, but the govern- inflamed the European Union’s Asian side, in a neighbourhood his career as a columnist – marked of control. take the necessary precautions to ment too? Taraf’s critics have pro- theatrical exasperation with their called Kadikoy, nestled beside the by an appealing mixture of wit and For a time Taraf seemed to break protect the soldiers.” posed a series of theories about the wayward Muslim brothers. Before I Bosphorus and surrounded by the gravity – he has suffered through a new Ergenekon story every other According to Congar, doubting the paper’s funding, suggesting that it moved to Turkey, many Americans surreal lights of this undulating numerous anti-speech cases. day, and this too raised the eyebrows preparedness or skill of the Turkish is secretly backed by exiled Islamic asked me whether, for example, I’d city, the staff gathered on the roof of One arose over a column called of sceptics. “I don’t see a journalis- military was a line the press would leader Fethullah Gulen, a controver- be able to say the forbidden words their building. There was a bonfire, “Atakurd,” in which he imagined tic achievement,” said one experi- not typically cross. “You hear it in sial figure at odds with the Turkish “Armenian genocide” out loud. Per- American R&B music, lots of smok- a country called “Kurdey,” where enced Turkish journalist. “They just journalism circles – so many peo- army, by the AKP government itself, haps they imagined goons would ing, a little dancing, beer on ice in Turks were the minority. When I in- gobbled up what the police intelli- ple admire and envy Taraf,” Berktay or even by everybody’s favourite snatch me right off the pavement. large bins, and a cake the size of a terviewed him last winter, he said, gence was leaking them regarding said. “They will say, ‘Let’s face it: If scapegoat, the CIA. (I think George This is certainly not the case, table. Spirits were high, despite the “I don’t have any auto-control. We Ergenekon. In terms of challenging our informants brought us the same Soros is in there somewhere too.) though restricting free speech apparent departure of the paper’s taught all the editors that we pub- the state – sure, maybe [that is an information from inside the mili- Gulen, the philosophical leader of a seems like a curiously obvious au- corporate advertisers and what lish everything, if it’s news and if it’s achievement],” the journalist con- tary, we wouldn’t have published it.” large Islamic brotherhood, tends to thoritarian flaw in a country suppos- looked to be a period of looming fi- true. There are no boundaries, we tinued. “But they have gone over- Cengiz Candar, a popular column- pop up in Turkish gossip as an Oz- edly desperate to prove its demo- nancial crisis. don’t stop anyone from publishing board, and basically came across as ist for Radikal, recently wrote that like character whose followers are cratic bona fides to the West; taking Taraf never had a great deal of anything.” Altan and Congar each a paper that is just out there to attack Taraf had made Radikal a better thought to surreptitiously control a Nobel laureate to trial certainly advertising anyway, but these days face seven different court cases for the military. In their reckless col- newspaper; Yavuz Baydar in Today’s the country. “Ah, Gulen is like Key- makes Turkey an easy target. But their ads usually appear on a single their writing. umns day in day out talking about Zaman and Hasan Cemal in Milliyet ser Soze in The Usual Suspects,” Soli the currents of Turkish nationalism page and say things like, “It’s good Congar, for her part, seemed how corrupt the military is, I didn’t have echoed that enthusiasm. Ozel said. “Everywhere at all times.” run deep, and at the heart of this Ke- that you exist, Taraf”; “I support confident that even a provocative find responsible journalism.” But Taraf has not confined its criti- But here in Turkey, home of some- malism is a concern for the fragility Taraf”; or “Without a democratic newspaper could operate freely Some months later, the judici- cism to the military. After Erdogan, thing called the “deep state,” suspi- of the nation, which demands the press, there can’t be democracy.” in Turkey – particularly now that ary, traditionally in line with the falling behind on reforms required cion rules the day. jealous protection of the state at all Taraf had drummed up support for the country’s EU aspirations have military, launched a closure case for EU membership, began to take It is hard – for a great many rea- times. the paper by selling ads for 500 and made the government sensitive to against the AKP, threatening to ban a harder line on Kurdish issues, dis- sons – for Turks to believe that an It’s important to note that not only 1000 lira (Dh2400) to largely anony- world opinion. “I think the govern- Erdogan and others from politics enchantment with the AKP spread independent newspaper can exist in Article 301 puts Turks on trial. A mous individuals. ment knows that closing or raiding for “anti-secular activities.” Turkish to the pages of Taraf. This fall, an- “Among the businessmen and a newspaper offices will make them liberals, and most of the world, ral- other PKK raid on a base called women we know – those who are look very bad in Europe,” she said. lied around AKP in the name of de- Aktutun caused the deaths of 17 very supportive of the newspaper (It should be noted that this con- mocracy. AKP won, and the Turkish Turkish soldiers, and Taraf, aided and call us up and praise us,” Con- cern did not prevent the country’s army appeared to be in retreat. by more leaked documents, again gar said, “when it comes to open decision to ban YouTube earlier pursued the military’s strange fail- support with advertising, they’re this year.) """""""""""""""" ure to protect itself. very reluctant.” Perhaps, Congar suggested, the When the chief of staff of the army But neither the declining finan- all-seeing powers of the state itself Taraf had positioned itself as a told them to watch it, Erdogan sid- cial fortunes nor the threat of anti- ensure Taraf’s ability to do as it harsh critic of the military well be- ed with him, and Taraf’s front page speech trials seemed to faze the pleases: “We know that the Turk- fore the Ergenekon story. In the carried the devastating headline staff; everyone I spoke to at the pa- ish intelligence, military and civil- fall of 2007, Taraf questioned the “His General’s Prime Minister.” per insisted self-censorship was ian, are keeping a very close eye on army’s handling of a PKK attack It sounds harsh in English, but in simply unheard of. “We just act like us – reading our e-mail, listening on a military outpost called Dagli- Turkish it is a very clever manipu- a bunch of crazies,” Congar said, on our phones, and bugging our ca. The PKK captured eight Turk- lation of the possessive, and all and didn’t seem terribly afraid of rooms, even this conversation,” ish soldiers, eventually released the more damning. Erdogan was the consequences. “There was the Congar said, looking around the them, and the army, embarrassed, enraged. The long-building disap- open threat of a raid [of the office] room. “But then they know the branded the soldiers as traitors who pointment with the Liberals’ Fa- and I think it was stopped some- truth. We don’t have secrets. If they collaborated with the PKK. Daglica vorite Religious Prime Minister had how by the government,” she con- take me and, I don’t know, torture whipped the nation up into a fury of reached an early peak. tinued. “We receive e-mail threats, me,” she laughed, “there’s nothing nationalistic and anti-Kurdish sen- But the AK Party’s political domi- personal death threats – I do, and I can tell.” timent; photos of men waving guns nance makes the media’s thought- Ahmet does, and probably some of and flags popped up in the papers. ful antagonism of the government the columnists do, because we are Suzy Hansen is a freelance writer liv- Attacks on PKK bases in Northern all the more crucial. “In the Aktu- The infamous front page: “His General’s Prime Minister.” more out there. Some of them we ing in Istanbul and a fellow with the Iraq soon followed. Taraf would lat- tun incident he did not do what he pursue through the prosecutor’s of- Institute of Current World Affairs. The N!tion!l 06 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae review th world The throwback kid

Samir Farag wants to reclaim the glories of ancient Luxor, even if it means demolishing a village or two. Will the governor’s dreams of tourism dollars save the city or destroy it? Simon Mars reports

It’s the first week of December and Karnack and Luxor temples, which a woman, her four-month old baby was used each year as a procession- in her arms, is sitting outside her al route during the festival of Opet home in Gourna, a village high up to celebrate the seasonal flooding in the hills of Luxor’s West Bank. of the Nile. Again, the Governor She’s waiting for her final eviction says, all the people moved will be notice. She expects it any day now. compensated. “The owner of the If all goes according to the official house will get the price of his land plan, she and the other remaining and the price of the house,” he says. villagers will be gone in a few days, “People who are renting will be of- and their houses will be leveled. fered either a new home or money.” The woman’s child will almost (Property owners will get a huge surely be the last to have been born windfall, he says, given that rent in Gourna, a village built on a net- caps have prevented them from work of ancient Egyptian tombs. earning much in the past.) On another recent day in Luxor, I And all this comes in addition to am sitting in a garden looking up at one of Farag’s earliest beatification the New Winter Palace hotel – one projects: demolishing the shacks, of Luxor’s tallest and, it’s generally shops, houses and football pitch agreed, ugliest buildings. As the that once occupied the piazza in sun sets, I watch a lone labourer, front of the temple of Karnack. Go perched on a narrow ledge on the there now and you see a vast open hotel’s roof, chipping away at the area that permits, for the first time building with a sledgehammer. in hundreds of years, a view of the The garden where I’m sitting is Nile and the temple of Hatshepsut attached to the Old Winter Palace high up on the Theban Hills. hotel, a grandly appointed 19th- Farag’s energy and excitement are century structure built in the Brit- impressive, but it’s hard to reconcile ish colonial style. While the shabby his zeal for the clean sweep with the modernist New Winter Palace is messy realities of Luxor. He insists being demolished, the antique his plans are meant to ensure the charms of its hundred-year-old sib- city’s future – that the pain some of ling are being enhanced with a five- its residents are now enduring will star upgrade. be worth it in the end, both for them Out with the new and in with the and for their children. old: this is Luxor in a nutshell. With And the Governor also wants to plans to turn the city into one of the make clear he should not be regard- world’s largest open air museums, ed simply as a one man demolition the Egyptian government has bus- crew; he’s also been building. There ily set about demolishing eyesores If you build it (and demolish that), they will come: Luxor’s governor, Samir Farag, stands in front of the Karnak Temple. Photographs by Victoria Hazou for the National are now highways linking Luxor to such as the New Winter Palace and the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada obstructions such as the hardscrab- and Marsa Alam, so that people on ble village of Gourna. Meanwhile, Always a ramshackable develop- holiday there can make day trips to they are preserving everything that ment, the village provoked frequent the city. Six thousand tourists make is fine and ancient– all so that tour- complaints over the years – that that journey every day now, all of ists can commingle with a carefully its inhabitants were robbing the them bringing money to spend in curated version of Luxor’s past. tombs or that their very presence Luxor. The city has an airport termi- The Egyptian tourist board says spoiled an important archaeologi- nal that can now accommodate up that Luxor, a city of 350,000, situ- cal site. Various plans to move the to seven million passengers a year; ated some 700 kilometres south of villagers off the site were broached. a new railway station and souk; a Cairo, boasts a third of the world’s But none, including a celebrated hospital; a cultural centre provid- ancient monuments. After spend- attempt by the Egyptian architect ing work and training for the city’s ing a few days there, you begin to Hassan Fathy to move them into a 30,000-strong Nubian community; believe it. specially built new city, ever came to a women’s centre; a large wireless On the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor, fruition – in part because the villag- internet zone; a library and a herit- there are the tombs in the Valley of ers refused to leave. age centre. An Imax cinema is also the Kings and Queens (including And then Farag arrived. Sitting in on the way. Tutankhamen’s, which is like a his dark, wood-lined, office, the gov- Overall the governor says the box cupboard compared to others ernor speaks passionately about his city has spent 1.2 billion Egyptian that stretch on into the mountains mission. Complaining that Luxor pounds (Dh808m) on infrastruc- in chamber after chamber); the has long been neglected by devel- ture since he’s arrived – changes temples of Madinat Habu and Hat- opers in favour of holiday resorts that have already had an impact shepsut and the colossal remains such as Sharm el Sheikh, he runs me on the city’s economy as a whole. of the Ramesseum (the statue that through a powerpoint presentation “We used to close most of our ho- inspired Shelley’s Ozymandias, still of his plans for the city. Hundreds tels after Christmas and New Year lying there broken on the ground). of photographs are projected onto but now have full occupancy most On the East Bank, in Luxor proper, the wall: of old slums and hous- of the year,” he says. “Starting from there’s a main cluster of hotels, ing; of brightly coloured tomb-wall this October, we don’t have a single restaurants and shops as well as paintings in the cellars of houses in hotel room – not one.” the magnificent and extraordinar- Gourna; of new homes and widened But still the opposition persists: ily well-preserved temples of Luxor streets, along with artists’ render- earlier this year a demonstration and Karnack. ings of Luxor’s sleek future. of 3,000 people outside Karnack al- Luxor is a city that lives off the past. That future is still a long way off. most turned into a riot. A court case Its monuments, tombs and temples Farag’s first task was to modernise A house slated for demolition in a plan to recreate the Avenue of Sphinxes between the temples of Luxor and Karnak. protesting the Gourna evictions is draw over two and a half million visi- the city’s infrastructure: electric- pending – marking the last hope tors each year. And tourism will be ity, sewage, water, phone lines and of Old Gourna’s few remaining few even more vital to the city’s – and roads. “The only real road we had residents. Egypt’s – future. More than 12 per was the Corniche,” he says. “But I Old Gourna’s inhabitants were developments – a collection of new- But that only means it’s time for cent of the country’s workforce cur- didn’t start with the Corniche, be- given their new houses outright. ly painted box houses lining clean the next stage of the plan, Farag rently works in tourism. With Egypt cause every other governor used to Some extended families in the vil- tree-lined and flower-lined streets. believes. Just around the corner is facing the need to generate at least come here and begin working on the lage have been given multiple, My guide – a smiling, spry and a development sure to create new six hundred thousand jobs each year Corniche. I knew if I started there I When I visit the adjoining homes, Farag says, and well-preserved 60-year old – lives livelihoods for the inhabitants of just to keep pace with new entrants would lose the support of people.” the entire settlement’s construc- with nine members of his extended places like Gourna. The governor into the country’s labour market, But a loss of public support was half-demolished tion reflects their preference for family in two houses separated by says he’s building new resorts capa- expanding the tourist industry is inevitable when Farag proceeded village, the electric- single-storey houses. The governor a courtyard that contains pigeons, ble of holding tens of thousand of an official priority. The country may with the rest of his plans. He clicks also insists that no undue pressure chickens and a sheep for Eid. In- people outside the city; that Luxor lack the oil money that’s building again on his laptop and brings up ity has already been has been exerted on villagers to get side, he’s painted the walls a beau- will soon have the biggest youth the Gulf’s new cities, islands and a five year-old picture of Gourna: cut off for a week. It them to relocate. tiful Moroccan blue. “Yes, it’s clean hostel in the Middle East; that a for- landmarks, but it does possess a re- “It was a slum area,” he says. “The may be true no one But that’s another thing the re- here,” he says. “You have water. est of jatropha trees, whose seeds source the Gulf lacks: the remnants people lived on top of the tombs in maining inhabitants of Old Gour- Everything is OK.” contain up to 40 per cent oil, is be- of one of the world’s most astound- their houses. They didn’t have wa- has been forcibly na dispute. When I visit the half- But there’s no work in New Gour- ing grown to provide the city with ing civilizations. And so Egypt has ter, electricity, nothing. It was a very evicted, one old demolished village, the electricity na. No tourists visit; in fact most engine oil; that treated wastewa- begun making a concerted effort to miserable life.” has already been cut off for a week. tourists don’t even know the new ter is being used to irrigate 22,000 use its past to build its future. That’s not a description many of man tells me, but it It may be true no one has been for- village exists. Back in Old Gourna acres of farmland; that investment In July 2004 Samir Farag was ap- Gourna’s inhabitants would accept. all depends on how cibly evicted, one old man tells me, my guide had his shop, one that zones are being opened to bring in pointed governor of Luxor by Presi- Many say that Gourna has been you define ‘forced’ but it all depends on how you define had been in the family for decades. new businesses. “We are building a dent Hosni Mubarak with a mission their families’ home for more than “forced”. He opens a box to show me some new factory just to produce a lot of to renovate Luxor’s antique sites a century. They were born there; One villager shows me the small artifacts and statues carved by his things for the hotels,” he says. Farag and redevelop the city as a world- their parents and grandparents workshop in his home, where a grandfather – carefully preserved thinks the city can double the an- class tourist destination. The task died there. But most importantly, couple of workers are still sawing and wrapped in biscuit tins, waiting nual number of tourists it currently entailed removing all the signs of they made their living there. limestone for the bas-reliefs and for the day when the government hosts. In the end, he says, people human habitation that had, over the To persuade them to relocate, the small statues they sell to tourists. gives him the new shop they’ve will appreciate what he’s done. years, built up on and around the governor built New Gourna, a fresh- The villager clings to Old Gourna. promised him. It’s been over a year; Meanwhile, my guide sits in city’s historic sites. As soon as Farag ly constructed, planned settlement When he moves, he says, he will he keeps asking and they keep giv- New Gourna with his family. His took office, in other words, Gourna’s with schools, a hospital, police lose his shop and his livelihood. ing him the same answer: “be pa- children seem willing to give the days were numbered. station and a cultural centre, five “You kill my future,” he says, “you tient.” So he keeps his life in biscuit governor the benefit of the doubt. Over the past two centuries, the vil- kilometres from their old location kill my life.” tins and he waits. They’re hoping that Farag means lage of Gourna cropped up bit by bit outside of town. “Of course, nobody Another man, my guide through As the governor’s reclamation what he says – and that he has the over the tombs of thousands of less- wanted to move,” he admits, “but Old Gourna, once owned a small plans continue, a fate similar to power to make it happen. But for er nobles halfway between the Val- we started with the young genera- shop in the village. But he has al- that of Old Gourna’s villagers now now my guide waits, hoping for the leys of the Kings and Queens. The tion. I went to them and told them ready relocated. He wants me to awaits some 5,000 or so people on chance to bring his grandfather’s dead supported the living there for they could have a better life; ‘you see what New Gourna looks like, the East Bank of the Nile. This time statuettes out of their tins and set decades, with the tombs providing can have electricity, sewage, clean so drives me there on the back of Farag is opening up the Avenue of up shop again. the four thousand villagers an in- water, TVs, everything.’” his motorbike. the Sphinxes, a three-kilometre come either as tour guides or via the The new settlement, he says, cost At first glance New Gourna looks pathway, once lined with thou- Simon Mars is a TV producer based sale and manufacture of souvenirs. $20 million (Dh73m) to build, and similar to some of Dubai’s housing sands of Sphinxes, that links the in Dubai and Cairo. The N!tion!l 08 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae 09 review th art Guerrilla marketing

A new book chronicles the war of images waged in Lebanon’s political posters – and the way artists and designers shaped the country’s larger conflicts, writes Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

Walk through the streets of virtually Pierre Gemayel, Bashir Gemayel, of Beirut’s poster wars, and the first ageing portfolios of artists, illustra- posters commemorating April 13, any neighbourhood in Beirut and Elie Hobeika, Egypt’s Gamal Abdel serious and comprehensive investi- tors and designers, whom she in- 1975, the date when Kataeb fighters you’ll find the faces of political lead- Nasser, Syria’s Hafez and Bashar As- gation of the way that fifteen years of terviewed over the course of her re- ambushed a bus full of Palestinian ers – past and present, local and for- sad and Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah fighting left an indelible mark on the search as well. In April 2008, Maasri passengers in the neighbourhood eign – plastered onto construction Khomeini. city’s visual culture – one that per- presented parts of this collection in of Ain al Rummaneh, killing more walls, building façades and shut- Some of the city’s posters are tat- sists to this day. Maasri is not the first a meticulously installed exhibition than thirty and sparking the fuse of tered storefronts. Lebanon’s presi- tered and torn while others are person to single out the posters as a titled Signs of Conflict, which was civil war. dent, Michel Suleiman, has gone so freshly pasted, evidence of the ongo- uniquely Lebanese phenomenon: in produced by the arts organisation The LF poster, from 1983, glorifies far as to call for an end to the relent- ing process of marking territory as recent years a number of Lebanon’s Ashkal Alwan for the fourth edition combatants (and, by implication, less postering, but his pleas have loyal to one faction or another. Some visual artists have taken the posters of the Home Works Forum in Beirut. bloodshed) in an illustration that been largely ignored, and the city is of the names and faces on the post- as subject and inspiration. In the five years since she began her hovers above a slogan reading “April still marked by ubiquitous images, ers have changed over the years, but Jalal Toufic’s short video Saving research, Maasri has been collecting, 13, The Dawn of Freedom.” The Arab large and small, of Hassan Nasrallah, the poses, slogans, sentiments and Face (2003) offers a clever rumina- documenting and digitally archiving Liberation Front poster links the Ain Imad Mughniyeh, Nabih Berri, Musa styles are recycled again and again, tion on the thick texture created by her poster collection, and she brings al Rummaneh incident to the loss of Sadr, Michel Aoun, Rafik Hariri, Saad an apt metaphor for the politics of a the accretion of posters for various to her work a designer’s touch for Palestine in 1948, collapsing the two Hariri, Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, country that seems cursed to contin- candidates who are apparently vy- making the material accessible and events into a single, tragic narrative uously replay the sectarian conflicts ing for public office, even though the interactive. Anyone can visit AUB’s of devastating dispossession. The LF of its civil war. winners have been decided in ad- website and spend time with the post- poster tries to capitalise on an eight- What haunts the streets of Beirut is vance and behind closed doors. For ers online. But what sets Off the Wall year-old “victory,” probably for the not the scars of wars past – though an artist’s project that appeared in a apart is the arguments she makes purpose of recruiting future fighters they are still visible, on buildings special, Beirut-themed edition of the and the conclusions she draws. in the aftermath of the 1982 Israeli pockmarked by bombshells and bul- German magazine Shift!, Ola Sinno Fawwaz Traboulsi’s foreword and invasion, the assassination of LF let holes – but the spectre of conflicts launched a hoax political campaign Maasri’s chapter on the aesthetics of leader Bashir Gemayel and the hor- future, whose scripts are foretold by by papering her neighbourhood with Lebanon’s political posters are swift rific massacre of Palestinians at the the posters jostling for prominence posters of her own face accompanied and confident. The pace of Maasri’s Sabra and Shatila camps – while its in what passes for public space (in by the slogan: “Acknowledge Me!” In introduction, however, is grinding, Arab Liberation Front counterpart the absence of grand public parks 2004, the anonymous art collective like day one in a cultural studies seeks to cast the start of the Leba- or plazas). With parliamentary elec- Heartland staged an urban interven- class. Here, Maasri takes immense nese civil war as yet another episode tions scheduled to take place in tion, titled Al Murashah (“The Can- care to delineate and define her in the epic of Palestinian resistance. Lebanon this spring, the paper arms didate”), for which the group used a terms, such as discourse, articula- Off the Wall is peppered with a race is certain to intensify further in round of municipal elections as an tion and hegemony. She gives ample number of revelations, such as the months to come. occasion to create an imaginary poli- credit to the work of Michel Foucault, Maasri’s discovery of a cache of SSNP Zeina Maasri’s new book, Off the tician, plastering his enigmatic face Roland Barthes, Stuart Hall, Ernesto posters in which partisans who had Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese across the surface of the city. Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, whose signed on for “martyrdom opera- Civil War, is the first sustained study In a handful of essays, historians, so- wide-ranging concepts she tailors to tions” took photographs of them- ciologists and urban theorists have ex- the specifics of her case study. The selves and wrote down a few final plored the impact of political posters language could have used some fi- words before blowing themselves on the residents of Beirut, suggesting nesse, but the precision with which up. The appearance of their posters that these seemingly benign pieces of Maasri treats certain theoretical con- on the streets of Beirut signified the paper guide the ways in which people structs lends tremendous credibility sordid execution of their missions. move through the city, barring them to her work. But the most significant and in- from one neighbourhood while wel- The thrust of her argument is that structive portions of the book are coming them in the next. As physical Lebanon’s political posters do not those that put forth an uncomfort- manifestations of confessional ten- constitute propaganda campaigns able but urgent argument about sions, these posters have contributed but rather mark symbolic sites of the role artists have played in shap- significantly to what Samir Khalaf, a struggle. She reads the signs, sym- ing not only the terms of Lebanon’s professor of sociology at the Ameri- bols, texts and images of the politi- political discourse but the twists can University of Beirut (AUB), has de- cal posters that were produced dur- and turns in its violent history. In scribed as the geography of fear and ing the civil war as evidence of how the early days of the civil war, many the retribalization of space in Leba- different communities and factions leading artists contributed to the non’s post-civil war era. fought to define, assert and articu- political poster campaigns of vari- Maasri, a graphic designer and late themselves on Lebanon’s social, ous parties. Omran Kaysi, from Iraq, professor, has collected some 700 cultural and political landscape. created posters expressing solidar- political posters, culled from the The sheer number of groups whose ity with South Lebanon and promot- archives at the American University posters Maasri considers speaks vol- ing resistance to Israeli incursions. of Beirut, the media offices of vari- umes about the factional chaos of the The Lebanese artist Rafic Charaf ous political parties, the personal civil war: the book features examples adapted his painterly style to posters affects of former partisans and the from Amal, Hizbollah, the Syrian So- for Amal. The Lebanese artist Paul cial Nationalist Party (SSNP), an as- Guiragossian, whose paintings are sortment of independent Nasserite now a benchmark of modern and movements, the Lebanese outpost contemporary Arab art auctions in of the Baath Party, the Communist London and Dubai, contributed art- Party, a conglomeration of other left- works for posters that were circulat- ist groups, the Palestinian Liberation ed by the Communist Party. Organization in Lebanon, the Pro- Youssef Abdelkeh, a former Syrian gressive Socialist Party, the Kataeb dissident who is currently represent- “We will resist”: Political posters, like this one designed by the Lebanese artist Nazem Irani for the Lebanese National Resistance Front in 1984, are a mainstay of Beirut’s Party and the Lebanese Forces. Maas- ed by the Ayyam Gallery in Damascus streetscape. Reproduced here is a sampling of images from Zeina Maasri’s new book Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War. All images courtesy of the author ri groups them into themes – such as and Dubai, also created posters for leadership, commemoration, mar- the Communist Party. Jamil Molaeb, offer commentary during moments art. At a panel during last year’s Art increasingly sought to express sub- tyrdom and belonging – and explores the darling of Galerie Janine Rubeiz of popular uprising or political cam- Dubai fair, a terrific spat broke out jective and political truths through the visual iconographies and textual in Beirut, made posters for the PSP. paigning. between the artist Lawrence Weiner a medium that they themselves had strategies at play. Ismail Shammout, the grandfather Because Maasri approaches po- and the curator Venetia Porter over transformed … This strongly evoked The most illuminating passages of modern Palestinian painting, litical posters as visual culture, and the meaning and implication of Por- What haunts the sense of identity … is arguably the in the book are those that examine made posters for the PLO’s Lebanon through the lens of cultural studies, ter’s exhibition Word Into Art: Artists single most important theme of the competing posters wrestling to de- branch. Kameel Hawa turned out she grabs hold of an argument that of the Modern Middle East, which, streets of Beirut is art highlighted here and what lends fine the same event. The Lebanese several posters for the Baathist-ori- art historians would likely dodge: in its Dubai iteration, included two not the scars of wars it its extraordinary richness.” Forces and the Arab Liberation Front entated Socialist Arab Union; Aref namely that artists are not apart examples of Weiner’s work among past but the spectre of It’s a nice idea. But Maasri’s book (a faction of the PLO), for example, al Rayess for the Lebanese National from politics, that their work is not some 75 other artists united only proves otherwise, and shows that produced dramatically different Movement; Pierre Sadek for the Leb- merely responsive but actively en- by their use of calligraphy. Porter conflicts future, whose neither identities nor meanings anese Forces; and Wajih Nahle for gaged, that the aesthetic object is argued that the calligraphic bound scripts are foretold are fixed. Certainly in Lebanon they the Kataeb Party. not isolated but is rather implicated artists of the modern Middle East to- have never been clear. Images and Maasri ties the aesthetics of war- in conflict and that artistic practices gether under a shared identity, with- by the posters jostling texts are tools for contesting, rather time posters to the development are not necessarily removed from the out reference to any one country’s for prominence on than telling, stories. Calligraphy, a of modern and contemporary art waging of wars. political history, because calligraphy the street feature of virtually all of the posters in Lebanon and the Arab world at If the political posters of Lebanon’s was tied to Islam and considered sa- in Maasri’s collection, is mobilised large. She explores how influences civil war informed the construction cred. Weiner, meanwhile, argued for purposes of political struggle, from Latin America trickled in by and articulation of political identi- that calligraphy was no more than ty- both secular and religious. Off the way of the Organization in Solidar- ties and positions, then the artists pography, and that Porter’s reading Wall may take as its subject a visual ity with the People of Africa, Asia who made them bear some respon- of it was no less than exoticising. product that does not qualify as high and Latin America – a group that sibility for shaping that discourse. In the catalogue for Word Into Art, art. But Maasri’s precise, insightful was established in Cuba in 1966 for Artists, in this regard, were partisans Porter argues that the works are and informed approach offers an im- the purpose of promoting liberation rather than bystanders. Even if they signposts in a shared history; she as- portant and effective antidote to the movements in the third world – and did not fight themselves, they helped serts that “texts tell stories,” and that ways in which curators sometimes the readily exportable visual codes of to mould the subjects who did. words embedded in images “provide generalise the life out of art from class struggle and revolution. Oddly Maasri’s methodology – analysing us with real snapshots of history as this region by ignoring the lines of enough, she links the production artworks within their complex social well as revealing reactions to the re- inquiry that may lead to complex, of political posters to illustrations and political contexts – is particular- gion’s devastating conflicts during gritty, untidy and even unsavory con- for children’s books, and to the ly crucial at a time when curators are the past few decades … As members clusions. practice of yafta, popular across the tying themselves into knots trying of emerging national communities, “Against Imperialism and Zionism” reads a poster from 1977, made anonymously for the Lebanese Communist Party “The groom of the south: The martyr Bilal Fahs” says a poster made for the Shia Arab world, which involves stringing to find meaningful frameworks for these artists and intellectuals had a Kaelen Wilson-Goldie reports for The militia group Harakat Amal by the political cartoonist Nabil Kdouh in 1984 public banners across city streets to the presentation of Middle Eastern clear view of their own identities and National from Beirut. The N!tion!l 10 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae review

th Amount, in US dollars, that the Qatari royal family 72.8m paid for a Mark Rothko painting in 2007

IM Pei travelled the world seeking “the heart of Islamic architecture” to underpin his design for Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art. He found his inspiration in the 13th century ablution fountain at Cairo’s Ahmad ibn Tulun mosque, whose austere geometry presents a surprisingly perfect match for the minimalist aesthetic of Pei’s own work. Hassan Ammar / AP Photo Collection of secrets

Doha’s new Museum of Islamic Art, brilliantly designed by IM Pei, offers a first glimpse of the expansive, closely-guarded art holdings of Qatari leaders. Carol Kino visits ‘the last curiosity cabinet in the world’

For more than 20 years Sheikh Ha- offers a touch of whimsy, courtesy dyed parchment, sits near a page Hubert Bari, the curator who or- mad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the of the lunette windows on the top from the Central Asian Baysunghur ganised this show, said that the tem- rest of the royal family of Qatar have floor: if you catch them at the right Quran (1400-1430), whose black ink- porary exhibition galleries will draw attracted the attention of the inter- angle, a friend pointed out to me at on-paper script is sparer and more on all of Qatar’s state collections, as national art world through their the opening, they suggest a woman’s elongated. Science in Art presents well as loans from other museums, widespread collecting – often beat- eyes gazing out from her abaya. ornately decorated scientific instru- to mount shows that explore differ- ing the world’s great museums at Yet what is perhaps most impres- ments, like a celestial globe from ent aspects of Islamic art. auction and paying top dollar for sive is that, unlike many museum India (1676-77) and a North African “Nobody can imagine what we everything from contemporary art projects with a celebrity architect astrolabe (1732-33). Figure in Art have in our storage,” said Bari. “It is to Islamic and western antiquities. attached, this building doesn’t over- offers many different depictions of probably the last curiosity cabinet Although there have been many whelm what’s inside it – and its con- people – quite common in non-reli- in the world – and assembled by a rumours about the royal family’s tents are more than a match for Pei’s gious Islamic artworks, said Watson royal family, by the same principle holdings, not much is known about design. – such as a silk carpet (late 16th to as it was by the emperor Rudolf II in them for certain. And though there An introductory gallery on the sec- early 17th century) that presents a Prague. It is fantastic.” (Rudolf, the has been plenty of speculation ond floor showcases some of the scene from the love story of Leila Holy Roman Emperor who ruled about the many museums Qatar collection highlights – a 15th cen- and Majnun. central Europe from 1576–1612, was may build, there is little on record tury silk wall-hanging from Spain, The third-floor display cuts renowned for his encyclopaedic, rig- about their plans. According to which may once have hung at the through the collection differently, orously organised collection.) Roger Mandle, the recently-ap- Alhambra Palace in Granada, and with a chronological layout that 2009 will bring exhibitions on As- pointed executive director of the the intensely blue Cavour Vase, one shows how these themes were var- syrian treasures from the British Mu- Qatar Museums Authority, who of the very few surviving examples of The exhibition design by Jean-Claude Wilmotte has created dark, subtly detailed ied in different regions and time seum, Islamic tiled architecture and assumed his post in July, this is domestic enamelled glassware from galleries that are dramatically illuminated with spotlights. Hassan Ammar / AP Photo periods. Here there is a focus on the pearls in the Gulf. In 2010 – when just how the Al Thanis like it. “The the 13th century Mamluk period. 12th to 16th century Middle East, Qatar will be designated the Arab thing I have to emphasise is that There is also a carved jade amulet India, and Central Asia. Capital of Culture – the museum the chair of our board [Sheikha covered with minuscule calligraphy; formerly keeper of Eastern art at the era of the touring blockbuster What’s missing is contemporary will borrow work from the French Mayassa Bint Hamad Al Thani, the it was made in 1631 for the Indian the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford exhibition. It was usually employed art from the Arab or Islamic world business magnate Francois Pinault, Emir’s daughter] is not very com- Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who University, this definition of Islamic to amp up the mysterious allure of – because, Watson believes, it does whose contemporary art collection fortable with having lots of infor- carried it to assuage his grief after art is essentially the same as that exotic objects from foreign lands, not fit the museum’s mandate: is one of the world’s largest. Also in mation or speculation raised about the death of his wife, for whom he used by the great museums in the such as Islamic art. “Contemporary painting is a recent the planning stages are several exhi- future institutions,” Mandle said built the Taj Mahal. West, including the Metropolitan, Yet as used here, the style works to development which is taking its bitions on pre-Islamic art. in a recent phone interview. Today the museum has about the British Museum, and the Lou- focus your attention on each individ- impetus much more from western In fact, these temporary exhibi- So when Qatar’s first venture, the 4,000 such objects in its collection vre, as well as national collections ual object – as does the flat-screen art traditions,” he said. In addition, tions may well offer a preview of Museum of Islamic Art, opened in – all of which are now owned by the in the East, such as The Turkish and monitor in every gallery, which he noted, much of the craftsman- Qatar’s future museums. Although Doha last month, the western art State of Qatar, not the royal family, Islamic Arts Museum in Istanbul, presents some of the pieces in each ship associated with traditional Mandle remains mum about all of world flocked there to get a glimpse and eight hundred of which are on The National Museum in Damas- room in soundless, close-up detail. Islamic art – weaving, enamelling, them – except for the National Mu- of their holdings first-hand, and to display. (That’s a huge proportion cus, and The Museum of Islamic Art The museum’s decision to include manuscript illumination – died seum, designed by Jean Nouvel and get a sense of coming projects. If in comparison to most museums, in Cairo. very little wall text also adds to this out in the 19th century once indus- slated to open in 2012 – another this venture is any indication, the which typically show only about one The collection looks extremely effect. trial production took hold, much source at the QMA said that they are future looks quite rosy. to five per cent of their permanent fresh, a real achievement consid- “Our philosophy is that putting as it did in the West. (Paradoxically, planning three more: one for pho- To begin with, the building itself collections.) The objects date from ering its ancient subject matter. more and more text into your gallery in an international art world that tography; another for modern and is glorious – the work of IM Pei, who the beginnings of Islam in the sev- This is partly due to the exhibition doesn’t actually help the interpreta- sometimes seems obsessed by the contemporary Arab art; and a third was lured out of semi-retirement in enth century to the waning days of design, by Jean-Claude Wilmotte, tion,” said Watson. “In fact, it can be new, the absence of it here is one of devoted to Orientalism, a concept New York for the occasion. Early on the Ottoman Empire and include Pei’s collaborator on the Louvre distracting, particularly when you the things that makes this museum that will likely be expanded beyond in the design process, Pei travelled plenty of secular objects, such as pyramid, who has created dark, do it in two languages.” For greater stand out.) its usual connotations involving the world seeking “the heart of Is- carpets, armour, cups, jewellery, subtly detailed galleries that are detail, visitors may consult the au- For the moment, those who seek 19th century Europe’s fascination lamic architecture,” as he is quoted panelled doors and the like, as well dramatically illuminated with pin dio guide, which should cover 100 contemporary work may repair to with the East. According to this in the museum’s catalogue. He as religious ones, such as curtains spotlights. Some of the objects are pieces by this month, or attend one the temporary exhibition galleries source, the Orientalism museum is found it in the 13th century ablution and keys from the Kaaba and an ex- mounted on pedestals fashioned of the many daily tours led by young on the first floor, which host an ex- now being designed by the Swiss ar- fountain at Cairo’s Ahmad ibn Tu- tensive collection of Qurans. from the same dark grey porphyry as Qataris. hibition called Beyond Boundaries: chitects Herzog and de Meuron. lun mosque, whose austere geom- In fact, Oliver Watson, a British the floor, so that they appear to float The museum’s display has also Islamic Art Across Cultures. It in- Mandle, when asked about these etry presents a surprisingly perfect curator who has been the director in space, and everything is housed been organised to tell the story of cludes new work by the 93-year-old plans, said, “I can’t deny those match for the minimalist aesthetic of the museum since June, said that in vitrines made of non-reflective Islamic art in a rather unusual fash- artist Maqbool Fida Husain, dubbed claims but I can’t substantiate of Pei’s own greatest work (most the designation “Islamic art” is re- glass that seems to disappear as you ion. The second-floor galleries are by some “the Picasso of India,” who them with facts, either. It’s a cardi- notably his 1985-89 glass and metal ally just a shorthand description: approach. In addition, each goblet, divided thematically into different lives in exile in the Gulf. There is also nal rule here that rather than giving pyramid for the Louvre). “A more accurate way of describing vase and piece of jewellery is given sections: calligraphy, writing in art, a fascinating multimedia display bold promises about things that The result is a dome-like structure it is art from the Islamic world,” he plenty of space – quite different figuration, science and pattern. based on The Book of Secrets, an are supposed to happen, we feel it’s that looks both futuristic and time- explains. To qualify for inclusion, from the crowded, jumbled-togeth- Each room mixes objects from dif- 11th century Spanish manuscript better to be really secure about what less, made from cream-coloured a piece must have been produced er displays of Islamic art one sees in ferent periods and locales to high- that depicts dozens of curious ma- we’re doing, and then announce limestone blocks set at angles to within a predominantly Islamic most museums. light themes that have remained chines, such as cannons, water something when we’re really ready each other so that they catch light or culture, in a country under Islamic Ironically enough, this lighting consistent for centuries. clocks and automata. The book to do so.” cast shadow as the sun rises and falls rule, which means the collection’s scheme – producing a dark, mysteri- In the calligraphy section, a page has been digitised, so one can page throughout the day. The building’s geographical reach extends from ous cavern pierced by spotlights – is from the legendary ninth or 10th through it and examine the ma- Carol Kino is a contributing editor at relationship with the light gives it a China to Spain. reminiscent of an exhibition style century North African Blue Quran, chines in detail. There are also a few Art & Auction and a frequent contrib- sense of measure and pace. Pei also According to Watson, who was fashionable in America in the 1970s, with gold-leaf lettering on indigo- models of the machines on view. utor to the New York Times. The N!tion!l 12 Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae review th books Prison-house of language

Abdelfattah Kilito’s new book explores Arabic literature’s long, tortured relationship with translation. Meditating on the perils and possibilities of multilingualism, Kanishk Tharoor reads across the divide

In the much-quoted 2002 Arab Hu- man Development Report, litera- ture stood as a barometer for stagna- tion and cupidity in the Arab world. According to the UN-sponsored study, there was a paucity of new, dynamic writing on the market, where “religious books and educa- tional publications that are limited in their creative content” held sway. Moreover, dialogue between the sa- cred realm of the Arab language and the world outside was meagre. The report noted that “the figures for translated books are also discourag- ing. The Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth of the number that Greece translates. The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Ma’mun’s time is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year.” Published in the bellicose early years of the now winded “war on terror”, the report’s blizzard of sta- tistics have since been challenged. (Spain, for example, translates less than 10,000 books each year.) But at the time the report provided damn- ing evidence for critics of the Arab world: open societies required an open exchange of literatures. But translation, particularly in the world of Arabic letters, has never been an innocent or simple process. In his slim, energetic work Though Shalt Not Speak My Language, the Moroccan scholar Abdelfattah Kilito burrows into the age-old problem of the translation of Arabic literature. The book, itself translated from Ara- bic, privileges anecdote over argu- ment, drifting playfully through the centuries to explore the relationship between the Arab and the foreign. Kilito indulges in a wide panoramic view, taking into account writings of numerous periods and styles, in- cluding ninth century theoretical musings on Persian-Arabic trans- lation, various accounts of Arab The Arab and the Greek: A 14th century painting depicts an imaginary debate between the philosopher Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes) and the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry. Ibn Rushd’s travel writing (including Ibn Battu- commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics was widely celebrated. But his commentary on the Poetics was a muddle, Kilito writes, “a sterile misunderstanding” based on bad translation. ta’s famous journey to China), and passages from 20th century crime ing of the Renaissance in southern and writing is always attended with peers? We Arabs have invented a is tied to a location on the map or novels. This disparate material is and western Europe rested on the potential translation, the possibil- special way of reading: we read an a given space. To speak this or that shaped by the premise that there is soil of Arab knowledge. In this pe- ity of transfer into other literatures, Arabic text while thinking about language is to be on the right or the something essentially unsound and riod, Arabic indisputably surpassed something that never occurred the possibility of transferring it into left ... and since [the bilingual] looks compromised about the very act of its regional competitors as the prin- to the ancients, who conceived of a European language.” That long in two directions, he is two-faced.” translation, and that foreigners have cipal vehicle – and engine – of schol- translation only within Arabic lit- thread of Arab language and culture This is a real dilemma for al Jahiz yet to treat Arabic literature with ap- arly innovation. erature.” Classical Arab poets never unravels under the heat of the Euro- and for Kilito (albeit slightly less so). propriate sensitivity and care. But while numerous philosophi- considered the world of letters be- pean gaze. “Woe to the writers for But it forgets that multilingualism Arabic occupies a rather lonely cal, historical and scientific works yond their own. Their contemporary whom we find no European coun- in much of the world is (and was) a place in the landscape of world lan- crossed into Arabic, barely any po- counterparts have no option but to terparts: we simply turn away from comfortable, untortured fact of life. guages. With the possible excep- etry made the same journey. Al Jahiz, do so. them, leaving them in a dark, aban- Language is not always wedded to tions of Chinese and Tamil, no other the ninth century Afro-Arab writer, Europeans since the 19th century doned isthmus, a passage without geographical and political loyalties. major modern idiom enjoys such a Arab scholars had already begun have had none of al Jahiz’s qualms mirrors to reflect their shadow or That Kilito suggests it is says much long, unbroken scriptural history. to argue that while it was possible about translation, and have eagerly save them from loss and deathlike about a common Arab and Europe- Classical Arabic remains intelligible to translate philosophy, the same studied and translated works from abandon.” an understanding of language: not to much of the literate Arab world, could not be said of literature. In flu- Arabic; Kilito’s roaming explora- Of course, the sins of translation the caliphate-era vision of language while most other modern languages ent close readings, Kilito shows how tions spring in part from his dis- are not simply those of Europe- spread boundlessly by the sword only emerged in their current written al Jahiz distinguished between the quiet at how foreigners have misap- ans. Though he laments the fate of and the book, but a vision of a fis- form in the last 600 years. Modern two; the “universality” of philoso- propriated Arab writing. He is par- these marooned Arab writers, Kil- sured landscape of languages, each Greek is gobbledygook compared phy allowed it to be shared across ticularly startled by the insistence ito opens the book with his own ac- guarded by its own political project, to its ancient predecessor; French is tongues, while the “particularity” of the French Orientalist Charles count of the pitfalls of cross-cultur- its own nation. To accept this view the ruins of a ravaged Roman Gaul; of poetry confined it to its language. Pellat – who devoted much of his ca- al translation. Invited to give a lec- of the world is to succumb to that English is the flighty, Latinised step- How can schemes of alliteration, reer to the study of al Jahiz – that all ture in France on al Hamadhani’s Thou Shalt Not Speak My false cliché produced by the era of child of earthy Anglo-Saxon; Hindi rhythm, and word play be made suf- Arab literature “produces a sense of maqamat (a 10th century collection Language the modern European nation-state: (and Urdu) are the mongrel beasts of ficiently legible in the parallel uni- boredom”. European interpreters of of stories written in rhymed prose), Abdelfattah Kilito a language is but “a dialect with an Mughal army camps in South Asia. verse of another language? Poetry in Arab writing, Kilito says, find it “bor- Kilito describes his struggle to find army.” Arabic in the 21st century looks into its very nature resists the estranging ing unless it bears a family resem- a way to make the genre compre- Translated by Wail S Hassan We can forgive Kilito, perched as he the mirror of its antiquity and sees force of translation. blance to European literature.” hensible to a contemporary Euro- Syracuse University Press is in Rabat, on the joined frontiers of a familiar reflection. Its continuity Al Jahiz maintained a fundamen- The translation of Arab literature pean audience. The only European Dh95 Arab and European history. Just as can be threaded through the centu- tal distrust of translation and the into western languages yokes it to contemporary to al Hamadhani, he poetry (in al Jahiz’s view) could not ries, endowing contemporaries with translator, and he suggested mul- western sensibilities and conven- finds, is an obscure female German be lifted from its original language both a deep sense of the coherence tilingualism was a form of failure: tions. As Kilito muses, “Who can poet named Roswitha, who wrote and dropped into another, Kilito’s of Arab linguistic traditions and the “Whenever we find [the translator] read an Arab poet or novelist today dialogues in verse. He declines to the terms of Arabic poetry (“satire” misgivings about multilingualism burden of their legacy. speaking two languages, we know without establishing a relationship make this connection – it strikes and “panegyric”). Kilito calls this should not be translated out of their At the same time, the Arabic lan- that he has mistreated both of them, between him and his European him as absurd, for who in his audi- blunder a “sterile misunderstand- own context. His book should be guage has always been surrounded for each one of the two languages ence will have heard of Roswitha ing” that failed to open “new hori- understood as a commentary on the by others. From the days of the pulls at the other, takes from it, and – but in his lecture he does equate zons” while bordering precipitously Arab experience of translation, not first caliphs, Arab intellectual his- opposes it.” Some echo of this be- the maqamat with the picaresque on farce. Legions of other Arab on translation in general. tory was framed by interaction with lief is present in the possible asso- novels popular in Spain in the 16th scholars have mourned the botched In fairness, Kilito takes great pains other languages. Kilito – echoing ciation between the modern verb to and 17th centuries. job as a missed opportunity for the always to cushion the sharp edges of fairly conventional wisdom – places translate, tarjam, and the root verb Woe to the writers “In other words,” he writes, “I mingling of Greco-Roman and Arab his arguments. He disassembles the the high noon of Arab thought and rajam, which means, among other translated the maqamat, not in the literary traditions. But was that ever Orientalist view of Arab literature writing in the period between the things, to throw an object through for whom we sense of transferring them from one possible? One can almost imagine al without resorting to the dishearten- seventh and 13th centuries. As Arab space (as in stoning, but also as in find no European language to another, but presented Jahiz grumbling in the background: ing thunder (and fog) of post-coloni- forces gobbled up the lands of the shooting stars and, by association, them as though they were pica- I told you so. al jargon. He even questions his own Persian and Byzantine empires, spell casting); in this sense the prac- counterparts: we resque novels, I translated them Whatever uncertainties Kilito him- doubts about translation, spying an Arab scholars absorbed Persian and tise of translation, or tarjamah, may simply turn away into a different genre, a different self holds about the possibility of unsettling chauvinism in his jeal- Greek texts. Translation here was carry a subconscious connotation of from them, leaving literature.” translations, they are not – like those ous guardianship of Arabic from the principally one-way, from ancient arbitrariness, unreliability, or trans- The celebrated 12th century phi- of al Jahiz – seeming observations of European interloper. At all times, he languages like Greek, Persian and gression. them in a dark, losopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Kil- fact. Instead, they were forged in the uses a light touch, relying frequently Syriac into Arabic. It was guided by Kilito himself seems to share in abandoned isthmus ito writes, was another victim of the furnace of recent Arab-European on implication and allusion, leav- the arrogant but understandable as- this distrust, but his own suspicion traps of translation. His fine com- history and, more importantly per- ing much unresolved and open to sumption that those seeking knowl- grows from more modern, political mentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics haps, in the memory of colonisation conjecture. Such a drifting, almost edge should now do so in Arabic; at roots in the inversion of power rela- won him even the respect of Dante, by the French, who were far more whimsical style may frustrate read- its peak the caliphate was the real tions with Europe and in the experi- who placed him alongside Plato and aggressive in their use of language ers who need the anchor of a sys- heir of both the Mediterranean pow- ence of colonialism. Breached and Aristotle in Limbo. But his treatise as a pacifying and “civilising” tool tematically and clearly articulated er of Rome and the universal preten- looted, Arabic has been invaded by on Aristotle’s Poetics remains an em- than the British. However poign- argument. Kilito does not guide, but sions of Persian kingship. Much has the west. The problem now is not barrassment of literary muddling. ant within their own context, Kil- instead charms you into his floating been written and said in recent years one of translating into Arabic, but of Ibn Rushd grappled with subjects of ito’s doubts about multilingualism adventure. about how the accumulated lore of the implications of translation from which he knew nothing (the Greek carry a whiff of the parochial about other lands stirred a cauldron of in- Arabic. “The fundamental change theatrical genres of “comedy” and them. While discussing al Jahiz, Kanishk Tharoor, an associate editor tellectual ferment in the Arab world, for us in the modern age,” Kilito “tragedy”) which in the translation Kilito argues that “to speak a lan- at openDemocracy, is a frequent con- and about how the eventual flower- says, “is that the process of reading provided him had been rendered in guage is to turn to a side. Language tributor to The Review. The N"tion"l Friday, January 2, 2009 www.thenational.ae 15 review th

2009lastAD word

I was in Lulu capturing last-minute shoppers on Christmas Eve. I had already seen lots of kids in their parents’ trolleys ! when I went down the aisle full of Christmas items and I spotted this boy. He looked upset and depressed, clutching a Santa doll. Just after I took this picture the boy’s mother Lulu Hypermarket, Al Wahda, Abu Dhabi, 2008 | Photograph by Philip Cheung spoke to him and he brightened up and was smiling again. Innocents at home Returning to New York after a season in Saudi Arabia, Nathan Deuel finds robotic Santas, cold curiosity and a struggle to explain It’s late December, 2008, and my wife and I are on fur- Then comes their opening salvo: So why must women The friend who says he’ll never visit Saudi says, “I’d go people were excited he said such a thing. They donated lough from Islamic lands. Snow falls on New York as still cover up? With lips kissed by barbecue sauce, my see one. How could you not?” money and volunteered time. we roll up to a friend’s building. Buzzers list dozens of wife and I rally our response: Some see the abaya and His wife is aghast. “What good could possibly come I continue, pulse quickening: The amazing thing, I say – names, from dozens of countries. The door snaps open other such coverings as a means to be unjudged by physi- from that?” She regards us all unhappily. beyond that fact that Obama is actually keeping his word and we hear the Christmas classic Jingle Bell Rock ema- cal appearance. Some in Saudi (and in Turkey, Indone- For a minute, the room is hot and too small. There’s – is how hard it is not to feel uncomfortable, even for those nating from the belly of an animatronic Santa Claus. sia, Brooklyn) tell us it’s an empowering convention, accusation and judgment even in considering Saudi, re- who would otherwise pride themselves on professed tol- It’s a shock: We’re just a few hours off the plane from that donning the fabric is a way to honour generations of gardless of whether any of us has actually seen the blade erance. What Obama’s done – giving a figure like Warren Riyadh, where music is effectively banned. There’s no women who’ve done the same. fall. a place on his stage – wasn’t easy, I say. Christmas there, and certainly no animatronic Santas. Our friends are unmoved in finding the practice offen- But I’m not ready to stop. I explain that we’re not there The room is quiet. My upper lip is sweating. Representing as it does the human form (in Saudi, forbid- sive. The reaction from one of them, half-eaten pork rib in to change their lives. We’re there to observe, to bring back In my mind, I’m back in the lobby of that New York den), Christianity (very forbidden), and celebration that hand: “Don’t they see they’re kidding themselves?” data, to ease misunderstanding in both directions. (Sau- building where I first saw the swivelling Claus. My wife doesn’t glorify God (also forbidden), this hip-swivelling My wife and I hang our heads. dis can’t fathom American divorce rates and hate the idea and I are standing there, eyes and ears buzzing from the elf is a bracing reminder that we’re temporarily free from After the plates are cleared, talk settles queasily on the of elders in nursing homes.) cold and the culture shock. Our large-hearted friend who life under Saudi’s implacable rules. matter of public beheadings. On the fact that murderers, The topic settles. With Barack Obama’s change train lives in the building comes to greet us. A Catholic engaged But with our visit just begun, the bigger surprise in store drug dealers, and certain sex offenders are drugged and barrelling toward Washington, talk soon veers to our to a Jew from Long Island, he is uncharacteristically emo- for us is that our own friends in America will, in their way, dragged to a public square in downtown Riyadh, where country – and the headlines reporting that a certain sub- tional: “Why just Christmas?” he says angrily, pointing be nearly as uncompromising. a burly professional commands a scimitar. Kelly and set of Americans is suddenly calling for Obama’s head. at all the Christmas decorations in his lobby. “Don’t they The next night, over a barbecue dinner at a music- and I report honestly what we’ve heard: People clamour to Why? The friend horrified by executions says it’s be- realise how many different kinds of people live in this art-filled apartment, old friends marvel at how far we’ve watch the ceremony – and when non-Saudis are present, cause the president-elect has invited a fundamentalist to building?” travelled. All the way from the last forbidden kingdom, they’re sometimes pushed to the front. Is this pride? I’m speak at the inauguration. It’s a small question – Why exclude? – but also a decep- where they practice the most intense strain of Islam, not sure, I say. Is it anger at disingenuous gawking? Also We’re on the same theme, different religion. The so- tively powerful one. The basics of pluralism are still the where booze is outlawed, where women can’t drive. The possible, I say. called fundamentalist is Rick Warren, the Christian basics, as vexing as ever. usual shorthand. megachurch leader and author of best-selling book The Back at dinner, I sit there sputtering, beginning to re- I steel myself to honour new Saudi friends by pushing Purpose Driven Life. Earlier this month, to the shock of alise how much more work there is to do – at home and talk beyond gloss and stereotype. I speak with feeling certain Obama followers, Warren compared gay marriage abroad, on the largest stages and in the most intimate of about life so close to Mecca, about the emphasis on fam- to incest. dining rooms. And I begin to see a strange logic in push- ily and tradition and religion. I explain that we’re not there to All of a sudden I’m rallying again. It gets us nowhere to ing bystanders to the front. Maybe that’s what people “It sounds like the opposite of everything I care about,” a dismiss Warren, I say, my voice rising. Or if you must take like Obama are doing: pushing us all to the front. Be- friend says. I clench my teeth. change their lives. We’re there to the hard line, you should at least be inspired and chal- cause openness doesn’t mean much unless we get close Staring down my meal of forbidden meat, beans, and observe, to bring back data, to lenged by Obama’s effort to invite Warren and his follow- enough to witness the depth of our differences. But for beer, I begin with the corny, first-order language of toler- ease misunderstanding in both ers – disagreeable as they might seem because of their now, as dinner unwinds, my wife and I let discussion ance: I tell him that, as unfamiliar as Saudi may sound, belief. move to happier talk. there’s still a lot we can learn from each other. I steady directions How much easier would it be to snub, to end the conver- my glass. Maybe you’ll never experience life in Saudi or sation! But when Obama said he’d reach across the aisle, Nathan Deuel, a former deputy editor at Rolling Stone, is among its neighbours, I say, but their claim to good living that he’d ignore partisan differences, he actually meant at work on a book about walking from New York to New is just as heartfelt as ours. it. Certain people heard him say such a thing. Certain Orleans.