Susan Slyomovics, ed.. The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture, and History: The Living Medina in the Maghrib. History and Society in the Islamic World. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 2001. 165 pp. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7146-8215-0.

Reviewed by Colette Apelian, Ph. D.

Published on H-Urban (March, 2002)

The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architec‐ place popular in humanist geography since the ture, and History explores a trajectory famously 1970s. charted by Janet Abu-Lughod and critics of her in‐ However, Abu-Lughod was subsequently crit‐ fuential article "The Islamic City^×Historic Myth, icized for her idea of "use," or rather her overt fo‐ Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance" cus upon Islam and particular defnition of "Is‐ (1987). Abu-Lughod^Òs article continued a discus‐ lamic".[1] Abu-Lughod^Òs article and the re‐ sion begun in the late 1960s to early 1970s among sponse it generated afrmed two major senti‐ scholars and practicing architects regarding the ments characterizing the discourse on "Islamic" history and continued viability of the category "Is‐ cities during the late 1980^Òs through 1990^Òs: lamic city." Her article specifcally addressed the the import of process over form and the suspicion concerns of planners and bureaucrats in the Mid‐ of universalizing characterizations.[2] The legacy dle East who desired to include "Islamic" elements of the debate and its participants^Ò interest in in development projects. Drawing on previous balancing practical and poststructuralist ap‐ studies and feldwork, Abu-Lughod dismantled proaches is evident in The Walled Arab City, a re‐ the category, historicizing and exposing its overly- cent publication on place making in a North reductive, self-referential contents, and critiquing African context. its authors for ignoring or disallowing certain so‐ The Walled Arab City contains several papers cio-economic conditions. After exploring circum‐ presented at the May 29-June 7, 1996 conference stances in which the category could be used, Abu- sponsored by the American Institute for Maghrib Lughod concluded that the notion of an "Islamic Studies and held at the Tangier American Lega‐ city" will remain relevant only if it is accepted tion Museum in Tangier, Morocco. The introduc‐ that "cities are processes, not products," or rather tion states several goals, including championing the sum of both design and use^×a response re‐ investigations into social praxis, encouraging the fecting the dichotomization between space and revitalization and preservation of the area H-Net Reviews around the museum, and announcing current re‐ vation and revitalization under an imagined idea search projects. Conference participants based in of authenticity would lead to gentrifcation and the United States, North Africa, and Europe, and museumifcation at the expense of the complex from disparate felds in the humanities and sci‐ social networks through which the North African ences either created or examined pre- to post- medinas "lived." colonial characterizations of enclosed or formerly Essays in The Walled Arab City can be divided enclosed cities ("medinas") in Morocco, Algeria, into roughly two thematic types: meditations on Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.[3] All but one essay use of space and examinations of medinas in text. demonstrate authors^Ò extensive feldwork and Three papers in the frst category present exam‐ research in municipal or national archives of ples of twentieth century life from the position of North Africa and Europe. various actors, while a fourth considers a collec‐ The Walled Arab City builds on the thoughts tive memory. of Abu-Lughod and her critics, paying particular Djilali Sari recounts the histories of artists attention to Abu-Lughod^Òs interest in social net‐ and intellectuals such as himself living in the Al‐ works. Contributors avoid the problematic "Islam‐ gerian medinas and similar settlements. He ic" qualifer and defnitions of "Islamic" life, and brings to light tactics used by a rising elite and eschew generalizations about the southern middle-class towards establishing an expressly Al‐ Mediterranean experience as a whole. Essayists gerian cultural identity during the fnal century of rethink established research agendas and city im‐ French colonial rule. Drawing on archival re‐ ages, especially those founded upon morphology search and personal experience, Sari "re-maps" which they criticize in particular for privileging several cities, emphasizing sites frequented by visual apprehension of medinas, and supporting musicians, painters, writers, among others, and an elliptical belief that certain designs signify an the location of schools. unduly valued and idealized pre-modern civiliza‐ Justin McGuinness describes walking the rue tion. Taking inspiration from Michel de du Pacha and rue Marr in Tunis where he lived Certeau^Òs approach to "everyday life" [4], sever‐ for several years. McGuinness takes careful note al authors explore how towns once conceived or of sights, smells, colors, sounds, and activity on edifed under pre-modern, Arab, Berber, or Ot‐ the street. Though he speaks as a resident and ex‐ toman Muslim rule can be characterized by late plains how both genders occupy the city, McGuin‐ nineteenth to early twentieth century activity ness refreshingly acknowledges his complicated within them, though not defnitively or homoge‐ identity as an author, admitting "much of what I neously so. have to say is highly subjective, from the stand‐ Like Abu-Lughod, several authors address the point of a European male living in one of the practical desire to map cultural identities; they di‐ poorer districts of a historic Mediterranean Mus‐ rect their papers towards urban planners and ar‐ lim city." His essay shows the sensory richness of chitects involved in preservation and revitaliza‐ everyday life in the popular quarter of a medina tion. In 1996, rehabilitation projects organized which he argues is little acknowledged by current and sponsored by national governments, local ex‐ Tunisian protective legislation. perts, and international organizations, such as Veterinarians Diana K. Davis and Deny Frap‐ UNESCO, The World Bank, and IMF, were either pier consider the social role of equines in Fez, recently completed, planned or renewed in sever‐ demonstrating through meticulous feldwork how al North African cities, most notably Fez. More the pack animal system of transportation remains than a few conference participants feared preser‐ vital today for a signifcant proportion of inhabi‐

2 H-Net Reviews tants and small business owners. Davis and Frap‐ Susan Gilson Miller argues against an overly pier then examine proposals to restore Fez, criti‐ homogeneous understanding of "Western" and cizing them for ignoring or undermining the "Eastern" urbanism by demonstrating how these equine network. categories do not hold water, so to speak. Miller Susan Slyomovics examines the role of mem‐ charts the exchange of ideas in Tangier between ory in making places habitable for diaspora com‐ Moroccan, European, and descendants of Euro‐ munities. She discusses how Jewish immigrants pean residents during the long confict over water symbolically relocated holy sites and pilgrimage distribution from the latter half of the eighteenth from the medina of Tlemcen to the confnes of a through early twentieth centuries. She shows how Parisian synagogue after the 1962 exodus. She ex‐ over time and due to specifc circumstances Mo‐ plains how Tlemcen^Òs sacred geography is con‐ roccan ofcials adopted what was once pejora‐ jured visually through photos and commemora‐ tively positioned as "European ideas," and thus tive plaques; aurally with prayer, music, and supported hybridized solutions to the problem of recitation of stories; and physically through walk‐ water distribution. During the course of her argu‐ ing a revived "pilgrimage" trail among other ritu‐ ment Miller precisely explains how the water sys‐ als. Her essay draws upon her observations in tem functioned, focusing upon canalization, Paris, inhabitants^Ò accounts, travelers^Ò de‐ sources, fountain placement and use. Her work scriptions, and academic studies of Jewish life in draws upon travel accounts, newspapers articles, Tlemcen from the nineteenth to early twentieth and municipal records found in Tangier and the centuries. National Library of Morocco, among other collec‐ tions. Papers in the second category explore ways in which medinas and medina life are subjects in James Housefeld reads Nerval anew. House‐ history and literature. Authors alternatively de‐ feld claims Gérard de Nerval "humorously de‐ velop a less recognized area of study, rethink a bunks the orientalist expectations of his readers" methodological approach, and re-characterize an in Voyage en Orient.[5] Housefeld then concludes orientalist travelogue. that Nerval^Òs text can be valued as a history of lives and stories from the medinas he visited, Mia Fuller exposes the under-studied difer‐ such as Cairo. Housefeld positions his opinions ences between colonial European attitudes to‐ against the arguments of Edward Said (1978) and wards medinas and Islamic culture. Focusing on Dorothy M. Betz (1991).[6] Tripoli, Fuller compares colonial French and Ital‐ ian policy during 1911-1943, the era Italy con‐ Two great strengths of The Walled Arab City trolled Libya. Fuller bases her study on adminis‐ are the open way conference organizers respond trative documents found in Italian archives. How‐ to the issue of determining cultural identity and ever, as she had yet to conduct research in the authors^Ò use of unpublished, primary sources. municipal archives of Tripoli, Fuller only tenta‐ Though some readers may not be satisfed by the tively concludes that Italians preservationists cursory manner in which a few authors frame were comparatively less interested in Ottoman their arguments, The Walled Arab City should be and Arab sites than Roman. Nonetheless, Fuller of interest to scholars of human geography and carefully and cogently argues several political and cities in text, in addition to specialists of North cultural reasons motivating Italian disinterest in African studies. Tripoli. Her essay provides a well-researched, Notes thought-provoking contrast to studies on French [1]. Janet Abu-Lughod, "The Islamic colonial policy in both Algeria and Morocco. City^×Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Con‐

3 H-Net Reviews temporary Relevance," International Journal of the Second International Conference on Urbanism Middle Eastern Studies 19 (1987): 155-176, pp. 155, in Islam (ICUIT II), pp. 309-322. 172, and 172 and footnote no. 31, p. 175. For a con‐ [3]. To be precise, the plural of "medina" in textualization of Abu-Lughod^Òs position see the Arabic is "mudun," but "medinas" is common in introduction to Masashi Haneda and Toru Miura, English language publications, as is "medina" eds., Islamic Urban Studies: Historical Review and rather than "madinah." These points are noted in Perspectives (New York: Kegan Paul International, the Introduction. However, it is a little unclear 1994), including a summary of critiques against why conference organizers choose to qualify Abu-Lughod^Òs position in 1987 on p. 7. Also see "walled cities" with "Arab" in the title of this book. Akira Goto, "Keynote Presentation: A Challenge to True, most scholars agree that the Arabs were the the Notion of Islamic Cities," The Proceedings of frst major city builders in North Africa after the the Second International Conference on Urbanism Romans, and that Arab rulers favored protective in Islam (ICUIT II). November 27-29, 1990. The walls. Yet, not only ethnically Arab rulers devel‐ Middle Eastern Culture Center, Tokyo, Japan oped the medinas mentioned in this book. For ex‐ (Tokyo: The Middle East Culture, 1994), pp. ample, the Marinids of the Banu Marin Zanata 287-300. Articles published in MIMAR magazine Berber tribe built much of Fez during the late during the 1980s and workshops sponsored by the thirteenth centuries, including establishing the Aga Khan Foundation during the late 1970s are walled palace city Fez al-Jedid. In the eighth cen‐ two among many arenas in which architects^Ò tury, the Banu Ifran, also a tribe of Zanata and urban planners^Ò expressed interest in ex‐ Berbers, built Tilimsan (Tlemcen) over a Roman ploring "Islamic" designs and city planning. Abu- settlement. Subsequent Berber Muslim dynasties, Lughod^Òs bibliography contains more citations, especially the Zayyanids, contributed religious and demonstrates the active role she played in the monuments to Tlemcen. After the sixteenth centu‐ discourse by both presenting papers and taking ry, Ottoman Turks built palaces, mosques, baths, part in discussions at conferences since the early warehouses/hotels and religious schools in Tunis, 1970^Òs, and publishing extensively on the issue Tripoli (especially), and Algiers, among other of "Islamic" urbanism and cultural identity, her modern-day Algerian and Libyan cities. Also, the 1987 IJMES article being one of the most recog‐ medinas mentioned in this book have been com‐ nized. The crisis of functionalism and space/place prised of ethnically diverse populations during dichotomy I refer to is culled from Diana much of their existence, especially during the Argest^Òs summary in Architecture from With‐ colonial and postcolonial eras favored in this pub‐ out: Theoretical Framings for a Critical Practice lication. See Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, A History of the (Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 1993 Maghrib in the Islamic Period (Cambridge: Cam‐ [1991]), a contemporary book to Abu-Lughod^Òs bridge University Press, 1987). studies in "Islamic" urbanism. [4]. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Every‐ [2]. Papers given in Workshop C "A Challenge day Life, trans. by Steven F. Rendall (Los Angeles: to the Notion of Islamic Cities" from the proceed‐ University of California Press, 1984). Slyomovics ings mentioned above show participants cover and Miller in their jointly written Introduction re‐ much the same ground. They attack Abu- fer to de Certeau as an inspiration for the confer‐ Lughod^Òs idea of Islam, yet position her work as ence as a whole. Most authors do not directly re‐ a center around which discussion turns. See Goto fer to de Certeau. above, also Dale F. Eickelman, "The Comparative [5]. Gérard de Nerval^Òs Voyage en Orient in Study of ^ÑIslamic^Ò Cities," The Proceedings of Oeuvres complètes, ed. Jean Guillaume and

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Claude Pichois (Paris: Gallimard/Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1984), vol. 2. [6]. Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vin‐ tage Books, 1979 [1978]); and Dorothy M. Betz, "Nerval^Òs Voyage en Orient and Baudelaire^Òs Imagined Orient," Romance Quarterly 38/4 (1991): 399-406.

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Citation: Colette Apelian, Ph. D.. Review of Slyomovics, Susan, ed. The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture, and History: The Living Medina in the Maghrib. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. March, 2002.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6073

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