All Things Arabia Arts and Archaeology of the Islamic World Edited by Margaret Graves (Indiana University) Marcus Milwright (University of Victoria) Mariam Rosser-Owen (Victoria and Albert Museum) volume 16 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/aaiw All Things Arabia Arabian Identity and Material Culture Edited by Ileana Baird Hülya Yağcıoğlu leiden | boston This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Cover illustration: Lithographed illustration of everyday objects from Western Arabian Peninsula. In Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas zu Mekka [Picture atlas to Mecca]. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1888. Plate XL. Leiden University Libraries, HOTZ 2303. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Baird, Ileana Popa, editor. | Yağcıoğlu, Hülya, editor. Title: All things Arabia : Arabian identity and material culture / edited by Ileana Baird, Hülya Yağcıoğlu. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021] | Series: Arts and archaeology of the Islamic world, 2213–3844 ; volume 16 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020037593 (print) | LCCN 2020037594 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004435919 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004435926 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology--Arabian Peninsula. | Material culture--Arabian Peninsula. | Arabs--Material culture. | Arabian Peninsula--Civilization. Classification: LCC GN640 .A55 2021 (print) | LCC GN640 (ebook) | DDC 306.0953--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037593 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037594 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2213-3844 ISBN 978-90-04-43591-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-43592-6 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by the Authors and Editors. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations viii Notes on Contributors xiii Introduction: Complex Legacies: Materiality, Memory, and Myth in the Arabian Peninsula 1 Ileana Baird Part 1 Arabia of the Old: The Things of the Trade 1 Frankincense and Its Arabian Burner 23 William Gerard Zimmerle 2 The Tyranny of the Pearl: Desire, Oppression, and Nostalgia in the Lower Gulf 43 Victoria Penziner Hightower 3 Palm Dates, Power, and Politics in Pre-Oil Kuwait 54 Eran Segal Part 2 Imagining Arabia: Exotic, Fabulous, and Misplaced Things 4 Circulating Things, Circulating Stereotypes: Representations of Arabia in Eighteenth-Century Imagination 69 Ileana Baird 5 “Who Will Change New Lamps for Old Ones?”: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp in British and American Children’s Entertainment 88 Jennie MacDonald 6 Creative Cartography: From the Arabian Desert to the Garden of Allah 105 Holly Edwards Part 3 Emblems of Arabia: Things as Identity Markers 7 Kinetic Symbol: Falconry as Image Vehicle in the United Arab Emirates 127 Yannis Hadjinicolaou vi Contents 8 Al-Sadu Weaving: Significance and Circulation in the Arabian Gulf 143 Rana Al-Ogayyel and Ceyda Oskay 9 Head Coverings, Arab Identity, and New Materialism 163 Joseph Donica Part 4 Post-Oil Arabia: Things, Memory, and Local Identity 10 Written in Silver: Protective Medallions from Inner Oman 179 James Redman 11 From Cradle to Grave: A Life Story in Jewelry 193 Marie-Claire Bakker and Kara McKeown 12 Cine-Things: The Revival of the Emirati Past in Nojoom Alghanem’s Cinemascape 213 Chrysavgi Papagianni Afterword: All Things Collected 225 Hülya Yağcıoğlu Bibliography 231 Index 258 Acknowledgements Projects such as the present one, which involve chapters included in this collection the best they a collaboration of scholars coming from differ- could be. We would like to thank Dr. Ian Almond, ent fields to fill in a new niche in the study of the from Georgetown University in Qatar, Dr. Keireine Arabian Peninsula, an area that has only recent- Canavan, from Cardiff University, UK, Dr. Kevin ly gained scholarly attention, are only possible McGeough, from University of Lethbridge, Cana- through sustained and generous support from a da, Dr. Emily West, from University of Hawaii variety of stakeholders. We are therefore indebted, Manoa, USA, Dr. John Thabiti Willis, from Carleton first and foremost, to our institution, and particu- College, USA, Dr. Sarina Wakefield, from Universi- larly the Office of Research at Zayed University, ty of Leicester, UK, and our own colleagues, Dr. Sa- which generously supported this project through brina DeTurk and Dr. Szidonia Haragos, from Za- a two-year Research Incentive Fund grant that al- yed University, UAE. Their insightful comments lowed us to conduct research both nationally and and suggestions for improvement have been in- internationally, acquire the resources needed for valuable to our contributors during the revision completing this project, and cover the costs of process. Special thanks are owed as well to the two publishing the book in Open Access. We are par- anonymous readers commissioned by Brill to eval- ticularly thankful to Dr. Michael Allen, Assistant uate our book for their attentive, knowledgeable, Provost for Faculty Affairs and Research, and to Dr. and very specific feedback on our manuscript. Fares Howari, Dean of the College of Humanities We would also like to thank Dr. Arnould J.M. and Social Sciences, for their timely support and Vrolijk, curator at the Oriental Manuscripts and encouragement. Rare Books Special Collections at the Leiden Uni- Ileana Baird is also grateful for the extraordi- versity Library, who helped us trace the illustration nary opportunity she had to conduct research as a on the cover of this book, and Mohammed Yousif Visiting Research Fellow at The Lewis Walpole Li- Al Zarouni, curator at The Sharjah Archeology Mu- brary, Yale University, in the spring of 2019. I would seum, for his assistance in obtaining permissions like to thank Nicole Bouché, the Executive Direc- for the images used in two of our chapters. The tor of the library, for being so accommodating and help of our colleagues from Zayed University Li- supportive of my research, Susan Walker, head of brary, Dr. Mary Sengati-Zimba, Dr. Judith Mavodza, Public Services, whose extraordinary expertise Mary Jean Bernabe, and Hanin Abueida, has al- helped me unearth superb resources, both visual lowed us to promptly acquire the publications we and textual, from the library’s outstanding collec- needed and make rapid progress on our work. tions, Cynthia Roman, curator of Prints, Drawings Their unabated support is highly appreciated. and Paintings, whose insightful questions and Last but not least, we would like to express our comments made me think in new ways about my gratitude to our series editors, Marcus Milwright, work, and Kristen McDonald and Scott Poglitsch, Mariam Rosser-Owen, and Margaret Graves, for catalogue assistants, for their prompt and profes- their prompt guidance during the revision process sional help in accessing the resources I needed and for accepting our book in Brill’s Arts and Ar- during my fellowship and beyond. I also owe spe- cheology of the Islamic World series. We also thank cial thanks to Robin Dougherty, expert librarian in Dr. Maurits van den Boogert, Brill’s Publishing Di- Middle East Studies at Sterling Memorial Library, rector, for his genuine interest in our work, and for her useful guidance in the library’s resources. Teddi Dols, Brill’s Middle East, Islamic, and African Our work has benefitted immensely from the Studies Editor, for her expert and continued help expert knowledge of our readers, who contributed in navigating the complex process of turning our their time, ideas, and expertise to make the manuscript into a book. Illustrations 1.1 Map of archeological sites excavated in the Near incense burners. Photograph by William East where cuboid incense burners have been Zimmerle, 2011 38 found 24 1.13 The “roof” of an incense burner as an architec- 1.2 Map of archeological sites excavated in the tural model from Dhofar. Photograph by William Arabian Peninsula where cuboid incense Zimmerle, 2014 39 burners have been found 25 1.14 A potter designing an incense burner in Dhofar. 1.3 Cuboid incense burner DA12728, Raʾs al-Jinz, Photograph by William Zimmerle, 2014 40 Sultanate of Oman. Courtesy of the Ministry of 1.15 A potter cutting architectural features onto her Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman 27 Dhofari incense burner. Photograph by William 1.4 Cuboid incense burner DA12728, Raʾs al-Jinz, Zimmerle, 2015 40 found in situ from Building XI, Room 9, with 1.16 A Dhofari woman wearing an al-kanūn during a Harappan seal impressions from Building VII, heritage festival, Sultanate of Oman. Photograph Room 8. Courtesy of Dr. Dino Politis 27 by William Zimmerle, 2014 40 1.5 Cuboid incense burner fragment DA10850, Raʾs 2.1 Mid-twentieth-century pearl jewelry. Photo- al-Jinz. Courtesy of The Ministry of Heritage and graph by Victoria Penziner Hightower with Culture, Sultanate of Oman 27 permission from The Sharjah Heritage Museum, 1.6 Cuboid incense burners from Sir Leonard U.A.E 46 Woolley’s excavations notes at Ur, Iraq. Courtesy 4.1 H. Moll, Arabia. Agreeable to Modern History.