HERITAGE: POLITICS AND PRACTICES IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

This course constitutes one of the educational activities of the master's degree programmes in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (Near and Middle East); in Transmediterranean Studies: Migration, Cooperation and Development; in Ancient Civilisations: Literature, History and Archaeology. It broadens the student's knowledge and ability to analyse and understand Near and Middle Eastern cultures and societies by looking at cultural heritage, archaeology in particular, and its role in the identity building of communities and states. Through a series of case-studies, the student will understand the process of heritage and identity building and its relation to politics, from the colonial and imperialist perspectives, to the establishment of nationalism, to the rise of de-colonization process.

The student will acquire knowledge and skills to analyse and deconstruct the process of patrimonialisation in the Near and Middle East initiated by colonial powers and carried on by nation-states up to the most recent perspectives of decolonisation. He/she will come to understand and deconstruct the complex dynamics that have shaped the practice and ethics of archaeological research and led to the setting of specific policies of preservation, valorisation and musealisation of heritage in the context of the great changes that have affected the Near and Middle Eastern regions.

The course does not require specific competences.

The main themes developed in the course:
- the birth of archaeology in the Near East: colonial policy and patrimonialisation; the creation of Mesopotamia; the imperialist museum.
- cultural heritage and nation building: the case of Iraq, from monarchy to Saddam; Mustafa Kemal's Turkey
- epistemology of conservation and restoration practices; the value of authenticity; the community and its culture
- international community and heritage protection: from colonialism to UNESCO; destruction, looting, restitution
CASE-STUDY
- Contested spaces: al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem
- Cultural appropriation and human rights: archaeology at Silwan
- Conservation and preservation for the community: Darb al-Ahmar in Cairo
- Heritage building in Qatar between Islamic art, ethnography and oil
- Urbicide: the case of Jaffa

to be found on MOODLE platform:
*: optional

AAVV, The Azhar Park Project in Cairo and the Conservation and Revitalization of Darb al-Ahmar, The Agha Khan Trust for Culture, on-line publication (pdf)
Ç. Atakuman, Cradle or crucible: Anatolia and archaeology in the early years of the Turkish Republic (1923-1938), Journal of Social Archaeology 2008, pp. 214-235 (pdf)
Z. Bahrani, Conjuring Mesopotamia. Imaginative geography and a world past, in Lynn Meskell (ed.) Archaeology Under Fire. Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, London and New York 1998, pp. 159-174 (pdf)
M. T. Bernhardsson, Archaeology and Nationalism in Iraq, 1921-2003, in R. Boytner, L. Swartz Dodd, B. J. Parker (eds) Controlling the Past, Owning the Future, Tucson, 2010, pp. 55-67 (pdf)
R. Daher e I. Maffi, Introduction, in R. Daher e I. Maffi (eds) The politics and practices of cultural heritage in the Middle East, London 2014, pp. 1-38 (pdf)*
Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, Archeologia e Conservazione, Milano 2007: Il dibattito sull’autenticità, pp. 227 e 230 (pdf)
Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Il valore discriminante dell'autenticità prima e dopo Nara, ANAGK 52, 2007, pp. 70- 73 (pdf)
M. Diaz-Andreu, Guest editor's introduction. Nationalism and archaeology, Nations and Nationalism 7 (4), 2001, 429-440 (pdf)*
K. A. Eggeling, Cultural diplomacy in Qatar: Between ‘virtual enlargement’, national identity construction and elite legitimation, International Journal of Cultural Policy 23 (2) 2017, pp. 1-15 (pdf)
EMEK SHAVEH (ONG), The Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif – Archaeology in a Political Context, pubblicazione on-line (http://alt-arch.org/en/ ) (pdf)
K. Exell and T. Rico, ‘There is no heritage in Qatar’: Orientalism, colonialism and other problematic histories, World Archaeology 45 (4) 2013, pp. 670-685 (pdf)
K. Exell, Desiring the past and reimagining the present: contemporary collecting in Qatar, Museum & Society 14 (2) 2016, pp. 259-274 (pdf)
M. P. Guermandi, Decolonizzare il patrimonio: Cap. 3. UNESCO, un patrimonio universale con un’anima occidentale, Roma 2021, pp. 82-106 (pdf)
Ö. Harmanşah, ISIS, Heritage, and the Spectacles of Destruction in the Global Media, Near Eastern Archaeology 78 (3), Special Issue: The Cultural Heritage Crisis in the Middle East (September 2015), pp. 170-177 (pdf)*
M. Hawari, Silwan: Biblical Archaeology, Cultural Appropriation, and Settler Colonialism, Jerusalem Quarterly 90, 2022, pp. 75-97 (pdf)
D. Hull, Orientalism: Islamic Archaeology and Its Colonial Context, in Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology 2013 (on-line)*
M. Melotti, Turismo archeologico. Dalle piramidi alle veneri di plastica, Milano, Mondadori, 2008: selected chapters (pdf)
S. Mulder, War and Recovery, The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology, Oxford 2020, pp. 707-730 (pdf)
A. Ricci, A. Yılmaz, Urban Archaeology and Community Engagement: the Küçükyalı ArcheoPark, in Istanbul, in CABI 2016, pp. 41-62 (pdf)*
Sh. Rotbard, White City, Black City. Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, London 2015: selected chapters (pdf)
Edward Said, Introduzione, Orientalismo, trad. italiana 1991, pp. 3-31 (pdf)
D. Shankland, Afterword: Heritage, Nationalism and Archaeology in the Republic of Turkey, in S. Redford and N. Ergin (eds.) Perceptions of The Past in the Turkish Republic: Classical and Byzantine Periods, Leuven, 2010, pp. 225-236 (pdf)
A. D. Smith, Authenticity, antiquity and archaeology, Nations and Nationalism 7 (4), 2001, pp. 441-449 (pdf)
L. Zagato e S. Pinton, Lezioni di diritto internazionale ed europeo del patrimonio culturale 2: Circolazione e restituzione, Venezia, 2018: 8 e 11 (pdf)

Learning is verified in two complementary ways:
A) 35% of final mark
The student is required to submit an essay (3500-5000 words) at least one week before the day of the oral examination; this essay should focus on an archaeological site (alternatively a museum) of his/her choice, agreed with the teacher or it may develop a specific topic. In this work the student will have to show that he/she has acquired the necessary critical skills and tools to understand the whole process of patrimonialisation, from research to valorisation, in the contexts of the local politics and practices, with a critical apprach.
B) 65% of final mark)
During the oral exam, students will be asked to illustrate some of the topics covered in the lesson, with the help of images. This part of the exam aims to verify that the student has acquired basic knowledge of the subjects and case studies discussed, and adequate critical skills to deal with their study.

Face-to-face lessons will be illustrated with images, available on the MOODLE e-learning platform. Part of the course will be seminar-based, and students will be asked to contribute to discussions on the basis of an assigned reading list.

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development