Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism

The Struggle to Define and Control the Heritage of Arab Art in Egypt

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8968952
AutoresD Reid (0000-0001-9629-4338, autor de correspondencia), Donald Malcolm Reid
Año1992
Volumen24
Número1
Páginas57-76
Fecha de publicación1992-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800001422
OpenAlexW2046711678
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas18

It was Europeans who started in Egypt a historic preservationist movement for Arab (or Islamic) art. 1 It was they who persuaded Khedive Tawfiq to decree, in December 1881, the founding of the Committee for the Conservation of Monuments of Arab Art (hereafter “the Comité,” the usual French designation). It was the European-dominated Comité that opened the Museum of Arab Art three years later, and it was an Englishman, K. A. C. Creswell, who established the Institute of Islamic Archaeology at the Egyptian (later Cairo) University. Why did the Europeans care? In 19th-century Europe, romanticism gave a strong impetus to writers and painters, scholars, and collectors to search for a lost past, the unusual, the exotic, the “Oriental.” This inquiry into the past, at home and abroad, was intimately bound up with Westerners' search for their own identities and with the triumph of the idea of the nation-state. Historic preservationists and museums selected, conserved, and displayed buildings and objects defined as valuable to their national heritages. Romanticism, in part a revolt against classical styles, also spurred a "Gothic revival movement and a fascination with various Oriental styles

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Cultural heritage · Decree · Islam · Nationalism · Painting · Political science · Politics · Romanticism · State (computer science · Archaeological Research and Protection · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Law