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Reconstructing Qatari Heritage: Simulacra and Simulation

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Reconstructing Qatari Heritage: Simulacra and Simulation Journal of Literature and Art Studies, June 2017, Vol. 7, No. 6, 679-689 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2017.06.007 D DAVID PUBLISHING Reconstructing Qatari Heritage: Simulacra and Simulation Mariam Ibrahim Al-mulla Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Qatar today focuses so much on reconstructing its cultural heritage. It is clear that the reconstruction of Qatari heritage has stemmed from a nostalgic mood. Thus, the government subsumed that heritage into certain interpretations and readings. Therefore, as presented today, Qatari heritage is no longer a self-referential heritage of an indigenous culture. Rather, it has become a principle to reflect the social and economic existence of the Qatari community along with other global communities. The mass use of heritage and the implementation of Western museum culture, however, might be viewed by some as the importation of a culture rather than the preservation of an existing one. To minimise such potential problem, the government opted to ignore any distinctions between representing heritage, interpreting it, or imposing new ideas and thinking around it. Instead, it has focused on introducing a heritage based on linking images of foreign elements that characterise Qatari heritage with new social and economic experiences. Keywords: Qatari heritage, Souk Waqif, Qatari architecture, Qatari traditions, cultural heritage in Qatar, Museum of Islamic Art Introduction This paper raises an essential question, which is why Qatar is putting the wealth generated in the last 40 years from its oil and natural gas reserves into the creation and concentration in cultural heritage that aims to reorder its cultural codes. Therefore, I am suggesting within my investigation the need to consider what lies between the use of the ordering codes and the order itself. I will attempt to show why and in what ways the Qatari government has manifested the existence of an “order”, how far that order has the ability to impose changes on society, and how the order has been applied to link space and time and represent values that create a certain knowledge, philosophy and narrative. Such an analysis aims to discover on what basis and within what limits the construction of knowledge, narrative and theory through the construction of a heritage became possible. I highlight which and whose history has been envisaged and which experiences have been reflected, which ideas have been used, and which rational values have been referred to in order to create a new heritage model. Reclaiming Heritage: Representation of an Absent Heritage If Qatar has achieved its economic peak in the oil industry in recent years, it has also learnt not to rely solely on this achievement, as peaks are likely to be followed by a fall. Therefore, such historical lessons have forced Qatar to think about investment in culture and human resources through focusing in enhancing and Mariam Ibrahim Al-mulla, Ph.D., Assistance Professor, Humanities Department, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University. 680 RECONSTRUCTING QATARI HERITAGE: SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION highlighting its heritage as well as the establishment of different specialist museums. This is one reason why Qatar today focuses so much on reconstructing its cultural heritage. The mass use of heritage and the implementation of Western museum culture, however, might be viewed by some as the importation of a culture rather than the preservation of an existing one. Aware of this potential problem, the government’s response has been to ignore any distinction between representing heritage, interpreting it, or imposing new ideas and thinking around it. Instead, it has focused on introducing a heritage based on linking images of foreign elements that characterise Qatari heritage with new social and economic experiences. It is clear that the reconstruction of Qatari heritage has stemmed from a nostalgic mood. This nostalgia for the past is a fiction that represents an absent heritage and an imagined reality, which, in its turn, undermines any comparison to real heritage. Therefore, as presented today, Qatari heritage is no longer a self-referential heritage of an indigenous culture. Rather, it has become a principle to reflect the social and economic existence of the Qatari community along with other global communities “in the era of high-tech capitalism” (Baudrillard, 1981, p. 6). It is a vantage point, a reflection of power, wealth and change. It is no longer itself; it is a simulated heritage that wishes to present Qatar’s privileged position on the world map. This is why, throughout my paper, I undertook a careful reading of Qatari heritage to see if I could reconcile what has been simulated and created today with what might be called an indigenous heritage. The government is using heritage (as they see it) as a reflection and production of historical facts and as an instrument; yet, the government has buried itself within it, in the hope of finding a sense of reality in sites that could become representative of Qatari history. Thus, this paper is not about heritage and culture perse: it is about the way that the government has imposed meaning upon that culture and heritage. It is about the way that the government subsumed that heritage into certain interpretations and readings. To understand the current mood for nostalgia and heritage, it is essential to reflect upon Qatar during the reign of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa (1995-present). Souk Waqif is a perfect example of how during his reign Qatari heritage has been manipulated by the government. A reading of the restoration/recreation of Souk Waqif demonstrates that the simulation of the Souk is not about history or heritage; rather, it is a fiction simulated via the way that the government has interpreted that history and heritage. Qatar During the Reign of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Such a rereading became vital as a result of the Sheikh’s acknowledgement that his predecessor’s failure to develop the country was a major part of his downfall. During the reign of the previous Emir, traditional Qatari architecture had been subjected to compulsory demolition, in order to build new cities and sites. There were a very small number of exceptions in the 1970s and 1980s when traditional Qatari architecture was preserved in museums. In the Arabian Gulf countries generally, there has been a loss of traditional architecture through demolition to make way for development in construction and civil engineering plans. The former development needs of Arabian Gulf countries have since raised questions about whether or not we could have saved examples of traditional architecture during the development process and, if so, how could we have saved them? In his study The Problems of Preserving Architecture in the Urban Area in Sharja (1995), Graham Anderson says that unfortunately these low adobe buildings, which occupied a great area of land, sometimes in the centre of cities, were seen as obstacles in the development process of the Arabian Gulf region. Added to that, the lack of awareness among the communities of the value and worth of this architectural inheritance facilitated the government’s demolition plans. If these buildings had been modified for reuse, they could have RECONSTRUCTING QATARI HERITAGE: SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION 681 enhanced and enriched the civic inheritance without preventing modernisation. However, the owners of these properties were influenced by the compensation they were offered for their destruction. Whole towns were abandoned, with many treasures of traditional architecture demolished. These buildings were replaced by new ones such as that in Figure 1, a government building housing the Public Authority for Youth and Sport. In adopting a bland Western architectural style, this building (and others like it) did not refer to native Qatari culture or heritage. It may have been viewed by the government of the time that adopting Western style was a way of keeping up with international developments. Such modern buildings were seen as indicative of the state’s modernity. Figure 1. The Public Authority for Youth and Sport building, Doha, built in the 1990s. Perhaps Sheikh Hamad decided that even if funding were provided to protect and preserve the national inheritance of architecture, it still would not prevent the influence of human nature, which had hindered preservation in the past and encouraged its destruction. Something different needed to be done and Sheikh Hamad provided a glimmer of hope for this cultural inheritance in his development plans. His attempts to modernise the state meant balancing demands for new office buildings, trade headquarters, ministry buildings and vertical residential buildings that befitted a geographically small country’s enlargement with the need to protect the irreplaceable national architectural inheritance. This is why he began his preservation plans with Souk Waqif, the traditional Qatari market, which had been restored in a modern style quite different from traditional Qatari architecture during the reign of his predecessor, Sheikh Khalifa. Developments in awareness of the past and the practice of representing it mark a key difference between the previous political system and the present one. When the previous Emir made his development plans, he might have considered preserving Qatari traditions, such as ethnographic materials, in the national museum. However, the need to preserve Qatari architecture was lost in the need to develop the civic infrastructure of the country, which resulted in the construction of new buildings in styles imported from the West. Kevin Walsh says that society has what he refers to as “the organic past”: […] Something which was present in construction of the sense of place. This may be considered as a more organic form of history, one which recognised the crucial contingency of past processes on present places. Places, natural and human-made features, acted as “time-makers”, physical phenomena which exist in the present but possess, for those who 682 RECONSTRUCTING QATARI HERITAGE: SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION know them, a temporal depth which gives them a special meaning.
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