September October 2017

S E P T E M B E R O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7
4 The Seventh Summit 10 The Music

Written by Johnny Hanson Through the
Photographs and video courtesy of Raha Moharrak Window
Students at the Girls Athletic Leadership School in Denver, Colorado, embrace Raha Moharrak, the first Written by Matthew Teller
woman from Saudi Arabia to summit Mount Everest, who also, on July 2, climbed to another record: Photographed by Andrew Shaylor
Standing atop North America’s highest peak, Alaska’s Denali, Moharrak became the first woman from
her country to reach “the seven summits”—the highest peak on each continent. “You are capable of London’s biennial summer festival of
wonders,” Moharrak says. “Feed your bravery, and it will overcome your fear; never feel that your dreams Arab culture, Shubbak (“Window” in
are too far from reach.” Arabic), staged 80 events with 150 art-
ists, writers, dramatists—and musicians,
all chosen for fusion-oriented creativity.
We take in six outstanding new sounds.
Online CLASSROOM GUIDE 2 FIRSTLOOK Photograph by Kelvin Bown
We distribute AramcoWorld in print and online to increase cross-cultural understanding by

broadening knowledge of the histories, cultures and geography of the Arab and Muslim worlds
and their global connections.
aramcoworld.com
Front Cover: Training for Raha Moharrak’s ascents of the seven summits included technical ice
climbing. “I’m always interested in new peaks, but I love ice climbing. I love the feeling of steel
September/October 2017 on ice,” she says. Photo by Yap Zhi Yuen.
Vol. 68, No. 5
Back Cover: Egyptian progressive-rock band Cairokee helped lead off Shubbak’s two-week pro-
gram of 20 musicians. Formed in 2003, its name connotes, “Singing along with Cairo.” Photo
by Andrew Shaylor.
18 Islamic Science’s 24 Morocco’s 32 Bahrain’s
India Connection Cinema City Pearling Path
Written by Alok Kumar Written by Tristan Rutherford Written by Sylvia Smith
and Scott L. Montgomery Photographs and video by Rebecca Marshall Photographs and video by Richard Duebel
Mutual belief in the idea of a universal From Lawrence of Arabia in the ‘60s to Star Wars Linking the waters once plied by pearl
order drew Muslim scholars to Indus in the ‘70s to Game of Thrones last year, Ouar- divers to the town their pickings paid for,
Valley knowledge, and their translations zazate is where it’s at for film and TV shoots— the island of Muharraq’s streets-and-alleys
advanced the trans-civilizational endeavor more than 100 a year—and it’s home to North walking trail strings together some 17
we today call science. Africa’s newest film festival. restored buildings, bringing new life to
Bahrain’s most historic urban
neighborhood.
38 REVIEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS 40 EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

4: RICHARD DOUGHTY; 18: BRIDGEMAN IMAGES (DETAIL)
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2 AramcoWorld
FIRSTLOOK
Qubbat al-Sakhra,
ca. early 20th century
Photograph by Kelvin Bown
Considered one of the greatest achievements

of early Islamic architects, craftsmen and art-
ists, the magnificent interior of the Qubbat
al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock) was built between
688 and 691 CE on Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif
by order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik. Its
intricate patterns reflect Hellenic, Roman, Byz-
antine and Sassanid influences, together with
bands and medallions of Arabic calligraphy.
To create this unique symmetrical image of the
hemispheric ceiling dome, photo restorer and
artist Kelvin Bown painstakingly stitched to-
gether nine digital scans made from stereo-
scopic negatives originally taken between 1898
and 1920 by photographers commissioned by
the American Colony of Jerusalem.
Produced as a limited edition print, this is one
of many historical images of the Middle East
that Bown has restored using modern tech-
niques. The results bring renewed clarity,
depth, detail and presence to early photo-
graphs, illuminating aspects of past ways of
life that express the beauty, harmony, diver-
sity and sustainability of the region.
Watch a video in which Bown explains how he
made this image at www.aramcoworld.com,
and see more of his work at
www.reawakeningthepast.com.
September/October 2017 3
THE
SEVENTH
SUMMIT Written by
JOHNNY HANSON
Photographs and video courtesy of
RAHA MOHARRAK
To the sounds of her teammates' cheers of “Seven! Seven!” and the clinking of their ice axes, Raha Moharrak topped Denali, North America’s
highest mountain, on July 2, making her the first woman from Saudi Arabia to summit the tallest peak on each of the seven continents.
The snowpack crunched as her feet hit the ground. The Arctic air needled her face.
The bright red air taxi fitted with skis had just deposited Raha Moharrak and seven
other climbers at base camp, 2,200 meters above sea level on the Kahiltna Glacier,
amid the snow y massifs of the Alaska Range. That’s when veteran climbing guide
Dave Hahn walked up to the group and looked each of them in the eyes.
“Okay, guys,” Moharrak recalls him saying. “As you may below the summit of Denali, the highest peak in North Amer-
have heard, a climber has lost his life. They are evacuating his ica. And she knew exactly the consequences of error or fate.
body. I want you to know this because I want you to know Three years ago here, a blizzard had pinned Moharrak and
what you are dealing with. I want you to understand where her team down at 5,250 meters. They almost perished.
you are, the type of place you are, and the consequences.” Moharrak recalls how Hahn’s words made her uneasy. “It
Moharrak knew exactly where she was—4,000 meters was a feeling I had to work through,” she says.
4 AramcoWorld
It was June 13. Ahead lay 20 days of acclimating, trekking time, but blessed with parents who embraced her eccentricity.
and climbing. How as she got older, she came to feel more deeply that
She was ready. In 2013 she had become the first Saudi wom- she wasn’t meant to follow an expected path. “As fate might
an and, at 28, the youngest Arab to summit Mount Everest. She have it,” she says, “I was meant to climb one.”
had stood on the six highest peaks of six continents, and a good- And how one day in 2011, when she was by then living
ly number of others. She was back at Denali because Denali had in Dubai, “I was in a group of people and this girl randomly
thwarted her goal to complete what alpinists call “The Seven said, ‘I’m going to climb Kilimanjaro this summer.’”
Summits.” She was here to feed a passion that began six years “‘Oh,’ I said, ‘What’s Kilimanjaro?’”
M
ago. A passion that started, she says, with the word “no.” “She said, ‘It’s the highest peak in Africa.’”
“I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s a mountain you climb? It’s in a different
country? It’s sporty? Dangerous? This is what I need to do.”
iddle-school girls pour into the noisy gymnasium, Uncertain of her parents’ approval, Moharrak called her
some in groups, some arm-in-arm, talking, laughing, father.
boisterous. Many wear sweatshirts printed with the “I’ve decided to climb the highest mountain in Africa,”
bold-letter acronym of the Girls Athletic Leadership School in she told him. “It’s this high, it takes seven days, and so on. I
Denver, Colorado: “GALS.” sounded like a broken Wikipedia page,” she says.
Few seem to notice four students near the wall whose When she caught her breath and paused, there was silence.
attention is fixated on the tall, dark-haired woman in a “No,” he said.
peach-colored dress and heels. They hung up.
“I can’t wait to hear you speak,” one says. That “no,” she says, “grew fangs, and it was clawing at
“Have you climbed in Colorado before?” another interrupts. my soul.”
Listening, Moharrak confesses she is nervous. She poured herself out in an email that took all night to
“This is my first time speaking out of my region,” she says. write, asking her father’s blessing, reminding him how he
“Ohhhh.” Sympathy, in unison. raised her to reach for the stars and to be fearless, dream big
“I was nervous about my English.” and, most of all, never, ever give up.
“Nooo!” She took a breath, hovering her cursor. And clicked “Send.”
“You’re wonderful,” one assures her. Silence.
“I love your accent,” says another. “People always ask me, ‘What’s one of the scariest
It’s January 31, and this is Moharrak’s first stop on a three- moments in your life?’ And I say Everest is number three.
day speaking tour in the Denver area. Her talk, titled “A Number one is sending that email.”
View from the Top,” is less about climbing Mount Everest Three days later he replied to her pages with eight words.
M
and more about one woman’s pursuit of her dreams. It’s a “You’re crazy. I love you. Go for it.”
topic that captivates 300 girls at a school whose mission is the
empowerment of young women.
As Moharrak walks to the front, students sitting on the oharrak topped out on Mount Kilimanjaro on
floor begin shrieking. November 9, 2011. She remembers the last few steps
She waves and smiles in acknowledgment as she takes the to the 5,895-meter summit after the grueling eight-
microphone. day trek and often freezing temperatures.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘When did this crazy obsession “Nothing prepared me for what I felt as I stood on
with mountains start?’” she begins. Africa’s roof,” she says. “The feeling was intoxicating. I
“It started with the knew it would not be
word ‘no.’ A small, the last time I stood on
two-letter word that has a summit.”
the power to enrage the She reached down,
spirit and fuel the soul. picked up a rock and
I never thought such a put it in her pocket. For
negative comment could
open so many positive
Speaking at Denver’s
doors.” Girls Athletic Leadership
She tells her story. School, Moharrak shares
How in her home in how it felt on Mount Ev-
erest: “It didn’t matter
Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where we were from,
her parents taught her what gender, what color.
and her brother and We were standing there
on top of the world. That
sister “to reach for the windy day above the
RICHARD DOUGHTY
stars.” clouds forever proved that

How she knew she you are capable of won-
ders. You just really need
was different somehow, to be brave enough to
not fitting in all the dream them.”
Left to Right: Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, November 9, 2011; Mount Elbrus, Russia, August 28, 2012; Vinson Massif, Antarctica, January 18, 2013.
her father. A tradition she would repeat. built man stood up.
Visiting home afterward, she couldn’t stop talking about “Are we not going to talk about literally the pink elephant
the experience. Both of her parents, Hassan Moharrak and in the room?” he said, looking at Moharrak. “Who is Barbie,
Yasmine al-Alfie, saw the new sense of purpose in her eyes. and what is she doing on the mountain?”
“At first we thought she went to Kilimanjaro and she will “Excuse me,” Moharrak recalls saying. “Don’t let the Disney-
not want to do that again,” he says. “But Kilimanjaro was princess hair fool you.”
only the start!” He responded, “I’m not going on a rope with you.”
“Deep inside I would encourage her,” Yasmine says. And he didn’t.
“As a mom, I wasn’t sure about the danger. But I always Moharrak remembers the fire his comments ignited in her.
encouraged her.” There was no way she wasn’t going to make the top.
“I was in love with mountains,” Raha says. The team summited the 4,892-meter cone of rock and
Love turned to obsession. She began waking early to re- snow, but on the descent, altitude began to take a toll.
search mountains, gear, maps, guides and training. Next thing she knew, Moharrak was wedging her
At 16 meters above sea level, Dubai is a less-than-ideal shoulder into the armpit of a large and ailing teammate.
place to learn how to climb mountains. But Moharrak didn’t The same one.
let elevation get in her way. What she did have was sand, gar- “Big men with lots of muscles need lots of oxygen and can
bage bags, a backpack and dunes. get sick very quickly,” Moharrak says.
“I would put sand in the garbage bag, weigh it, and then “It didn’t smell very nice, and so ‘princess’ braced him
every week add two kilos until I reached 20,” she says. “I’d down the whole thing,” she says.
start [hiking for] two hours, then four hours, six hours, until Moharrak won his respect, his friendship and a new nick-
I reached 12. If I didn’t have time to walk outside the city, I name: “Tough Cookie.”
would literally go on the treadmill, put [the backpack] on, Five weeks later, she climbed 6,961-meter Aconcagua,
H
have an iPad, read books or listen to audiobooks.” South America’s highest.
As Moharrak logged more and more hours of climbing
and training, she began to realize that she was capable of
more than she ever imagined. assan says
“Climbing teaches you how to manage yourself,” she says. that more
She made trips to Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile than any-
and the base camp of Everest. thing, he wants his
“Raha will never, ever give up,” says Hassan. “She will not daughter to be safe.
tell you of her future plans unless it is the right time. If [we Trust had to be
have] any hesitation about letting her go, she will say, ‘okay,’ earned.
and she will come back to us and pull the carpet from under “Raha is a great
our feet,” he says, laughing. planner,” he says.
On August 28, 2012, she reached the 5,642-meter summit “When she wants
of Russia’s Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. to do something,
The following January Moharrak made what she calls her she will plan it very
“first big mountain expedition.” well, do training,
She was wearing a crisp white shirt, she recalls, when she whatever it takes to
walked into the team briefing to prepare their ascent of Vin- get herself ready.”
son Massif, the tallest peak in Antarctica. With each expe-
She took notes as the team discussed plans. Then a tall, thick- dition Moharrak
6 AramcoWorld
Crampons clamped to her boots
help Moharrak and her teammates
maintain footing on the route up
Mount Everest. Moharrak became
one of some 60 women who have
reached the summit and, at age 28,
one of the youngest.
would plan, she came to antic-

ipate “no” from her father. But
Moharrak would persist, con-
vince and go.
But Hassan drew one firm
line.
“Don’t ever ask for Everest,”
he told her.
He was unaware that climb-
ing Vinson and Aconcagua had
inspired an even higher goal,
that of membership in one of
the world’s most exclusive clubs,
with only some 500 members,
fewer than 75 of whom are
women. It is a club with one entrance requirement: Get to the Days later, Hassan and Yasmine came to her with a piece
top of the tallest mountain on each continent. of paper.
“At that point I had three down,” Moharrak says. “So I “What’s this?” Moharrak said.
said, ‘Why not?’” “I signed you up and I paid,” her father said. Moharrak
While still in Antarctica, Moharrak turned 25. was stunned.
Her parents called and asked what she wanted for a gift. “Do you believe you can climb this mountain?”
“Everest,” she said. “Yes,” she said.
Q
“No.” “Now I believe you can climb the mountain, but promise
me two things: First, don’t push yourself beyond your capa-
bilities. Second, you need to promise me that you will come
uietly, she applied for an Everest climbing slot for the back to me.”
2013 summer season. On May 18, 2013, she stood on the roof of the world. She
She called home. held a Saudi flag her father had given her.
F
“I applied and I got accepted, and we have to pay the She found him a rock.
down payment now, and I believe I can do it,” she recalls
OPPOSITE, CENTER: ELIA SAIKALY
saying.
But soon Moharrak began to have her own doubts. “I felt our years and one month later, led by Hahn and three
like, maybe I’m not ready, maybe it’s not the time. So I pulled other guides, Moharrak and her seven fellow climbers set
my application. I canceled.” out from Kahiltna Glacier base camp for Denali. Each
Left to Right: Aconcagua, Argentina, February 26, 2013; Mount Everest, Nepal-China border, May 18, 2013; Mount Kosciuszko, Australia,
October 13, 2013.
climber carried a 25-kilogram pack and dragged another 25
kilograms of gear and food on a sled. The trek was hard.
Long. As they trudged, the two Germans, five Americans and
Moharrak got to know each other and their guides.
“We were like absolute misfits at the start,” Moharrak says.
“You wouldn’t even imagine any of us would get along at all.”
The group laughed and struggled. Shared stories. “We
became a team.”
Moharrak recalls the evening, at 4,330 meters at Camp 3,
that turned into a poetry reading.
“One of the guys, who I called Mr. Music Man, be-
cause he always had music, was one of those social people.
He always wanted us to do something together,” she says.
“Whether it’s playing charades or storytelling, or whatever.
One of the nights, it was poetry reading, and we all had to
write a poem.”
One wrote a haiku about pasta. Moharrak wrote about
the mountain and her father, who was recovering from a
difficult heart surgery.
With fewer than 15 minutes to spend at the summit of Mount
Denali, we dreamt of your summit for years. Everest, Moharrak sat down to absorb a view seen for the first
time through the eyes of a woman from Saudi Arabia.
But only the brave and strong perseveres.
Your beauty is only eclipsed by your might.
And your weather, it would give me a fright. The weather held. The team continued up. Moharrak
We ask for permission to reach your crown, began to feel uneasy again.
Because without it, we’ll probably fall down. Around 4,000 meters, where the oxygen level is half that
I have come a long way to live this dream. of sea level, a team member became overwhelmed and decid-
And I couldn’t have asked for a better team. ed to descend. Two of the guides went down with him. Soon
From sand to ice, the contrast is clear. afterward, another had to be cajoled and physically assisted
But I have never let that feed my fear. to make it up to Camp 6 at 5,250 meters. They lost a pre-
You are only as strong as the weakest link. cious day.
But Dave Hahn will make sure there are no kinks. Seeing two strong people so affected by the mountain also
You are the last of my seven-summit quest. began to play with her mind. Memories of her 2014 attempt
And also, my very sick father’s final request. flashed afresh. No wonder: It was in this exact spot where,
I wish a second attempt you won’t deny. that year, a snow slide had blocked her team’s path to the
So please be merciful on my team and I. summit and, before they could turn back, the sudden blizzard
forced Moharrak and her American and Russian teammates
As difficult as the ascent of Everest was, Moharrak knew most acci- to shelter in a small tent for eight days of wind, snow, rationed
dents happen on the way down. “I had to keep focused,” she says.
food, weakening bodies and prayers just to
make it down alive.
When the skies cleared, they made a break
for it. It took them 20 hours.
On the flight back to Dubai, Moharrak
felt claustrophobia. She developed ulcers. She
lost toenails. Perhaps hardest of all, mentally,
she felt beaten.
It would be a year before she put on hiking
W
boots again.
hen she unzipped the flap of her tent

on July 2, she couldn’t believe it. No
storms. No wind. Sun lit the slope
to her seventh summit, now three kilometers
away and 1,000 meters above.
Still she felt wary, she says. This day
would be the hardest.
As they reached the first ridge, she coached
herself. “You know what? Calm down, Raha.
8 AramcoWorld
One step at a time.” Their pace was steady, but she could feel many people can say they have a chance to change mentalities
I
forces outside of herself slowing her down. and inspire others?”
For the first time on the climb, doubts entered her mind.
After cresting a rise, she stopped. She could see the summit.
It gave no relief. Her nerves began to take over. Thoughts n Denver, telling her story to the girls of GALS, she is doing
ran through her head. just that. Her talk finished, she is swarmed by students who
A storm could roll in. A teammate could slip and cause her just want to get close, ask a question, share a hug or take a
to fall. selfie with her.
One of the guides noticed. She came down to Moharrak. “I really enjoyed your speech. It inspired me,” says one.
She set her hands on Moharrak’s shoulders and spoke Finding a gap in the crowd, a short girl wearing a white
to her, Moharrak recalls. “‘Listen, Raha. You earned this. headband and a red sweatshirt walks up and commands her
You have every right to be here. You’ve
gotta make it to the top, because you’re
the type of person that does not give up.
Calm down and relax. You are going
there.’”
Her clouds of doubt began to dissipate.
The team ascended the narrow summit
ridge, where a step to the right or the left
could mean your life would depend on
the rope that linked you to your team.
Morrarak was last on the line.
“My eyes were just starting to tear
up, because all I could think about was
my parents, and my dad, and being here.
When I finally got to the top, they all
knew it was my seventh. They all started
clanging their ice axes, like, clink, clink,
clink, clink, clink, and they’re all like,
‘Seven! Seven! Woo!’ and screaming. I
had a very amazing welcome at the top.
“In my mind, I said, ‘Thank you, God,
T
for giving me a day like this.’”
hree weeks later, she says, her toes

are still black and blue. Speaking Students hang on her words as Moharrak, clad in a T-shirt from her newest fans,
from her parents’ home in Jiddah, encourages them to “follow whatever dream you want. All I wanted was to prove to
Denali fresh in her mind, Moharrak says myself that I could attempt the impossible and maybe even achieve it." See video at
www.aramcoworld.com.
the walk she is most looking forward to
next is down to a beach.
She’s unlikely to rest for long. attention. Moharrak bends over, eye-to-eye, and smiles.
As she scaled mountain after mountain, the world has be- “You’re my shero,” the girl declares, deploying the femi-
gun to take notice. Her face appeared on magazines. She had nized adaptation of “hero” that’s lingo at GALS.
television interviews. Nike and Lipton Tea enlisted her for “Aww, thank you so much,” Moharrak replies. “I real-
advertisements. ly hope you guys end up where you want to be, and follow
She won the 2014 Global Thinkers Forum Award for Ex- whatever dream you want. If I can live mine, a girl from the
cellence in Pioneering and the 2016 Emirates Woman Achiev- desert who climbed mountains, you can live yours, too.”
er award. On Instagram, she gathered more than 25,000
followers. She began writing a book. Johnny Hanson is the digital media editor for
AramcoWorld. The tallest mountain he has climbed is
To many, Moharrak has become a portrait in strength and 4,352-meter Gray’s Peak, Colorado.
perseverance, a role model in her country, the Arab world and
beyond. It’s attention she isn’t always comfortable with. She
told few people about her summit to Everest, despite global
publicity. As for Denali, she waited weeks before posting her @rahamoharrak
RICHARD DOUGHTY
achievement on social media.

“Imagine that a scrawny tomboy from Jiddah, who’s Related articles at www.aramcoworld.com
severely dyslexic and did horrible in school, would ever be Atlas Mountains: M/A 08
someone who’s quoted. In a way, I’m super proud. How Mount Ararat: S/O 05
o
Music
Through
M
Window
^
Written
MATTHEW
TELLER For two midsummer weeks, every two years, London becomes a global stage for
^
Photographed
ANDREW
Arab arts. The biennial Shubbak festival, subtitled “A Window on Contemporary Arab
Culture”—a literal play on the Arabic word shubbak, which means window—gath-
SHAYLOR
ers together writers, artists, performers, musicians and critics for dozens of events
spread across the British capital, from film premieres and commissions of new dance
works to debates, art installations and—almost every night—music.
10 AramcoWorld
Opposite: Beirut-
born singer-song- Maya
writer Tania Saleh Youssef
opened the first
musical perfor- Shubbak’s music event
mance of the 2017 on the main stage
Shubbak festival on at Trafalgar Square
July 1 at London’s
Barbican Centre, opened with the zither-
weaving traditional like qanun, played by
Arab vocal styles London-based virtuo-
with folk, indie rock,
bossa nova and jazz. so Maya Youssef. Like
Right: London-based a horizontal harp, its
and Syria-born vir- plucked strings haunt
tuoso Maya Youssef
performed on her and hypnotize, all the
78-stringed qanun more so when ampli-
July 2 on the main fied before a standing
stage at Trafalgar
Square, opposite, audience of thousands
lower. amid the austere neo-
classical architecture
Shubbak began in 2011 as part of a series of one-off events of central London.
promoted by the mayor of London showcasing world cultures Accompanied by cello and percussion, Youssef bent closely
from India and China to Brazil. Shubbak, however, proved so over her instrument, laid flat on her lap, plectrums on each
popular, and so emblematic of the fresh cultural energy rip- index finger, performing both traditional pieces and her own
pling across many Arab countries, that it was made an inde- composition “Syrian Dreams,” a fluid, elegiac solo she calls
pendent charity charged with staging biennial editions. “a prayer for peace.”
In 2015 Shubbak presented more than 70 events featuring Her graceful, accomplished playing brought echoes of Syr-
130 artists from 18 Arab countries that drew a total audi- ia to new ears.
ence of more than 50,000 people. The 2017 festival, which “I grew up in Damascus in a house full of music, and I
finished July 16, encompassed some 80 events featuring 150 started learning [qanun] when I was nine. It’s been a life com-
artists, and it drew similar numbers. panion,” she says.
“Our purpose is to present Arab artists to the widest possi- After leaving Syria in 2007 for Dubai and then Oman, in
ble audience,” says Shubbak’s artistic director Eckhard Thie- 2012 Youssef settled in the UK. She now researches ethnomu-
mann, who helped produce the cultural program for London’s sicology at the University of London and the role of music in
2012 Summer Olympics and has worked with Arab artists in healing post-traumatic stress among children.
the UK over two decades. “I see myself as a tree rooted in the ancient tradition of
This year, alongside Shubbak’s programs in art, literature, Syrian music, but from there I can go wherever I want. Being
drama and film, Thiemann oversaw a music program featur- in the UK means I can deliver my music to people who would
ing more than 20 musicians and performers who emphasized not normally hear it, and also collaborate with musicians
the contemporary and the genre-busting. from all sorts of backgrounds, to expand musical horizons.”
“We look at a lot of work,” Thiemann says. “We select
artists because of their innovative Rasha
approach and their creativity.” Born into a prolifically artistic
Increasingly, like their audiences, family in Khartoum, Sudan, Rasha
he adds, the musicians selected began singing professionally in
“have grown up on social media 1991 after she moved to Spain,
and are unafraid to mix styles and where she still lives.
platforms. We are always trying to For her first record, Sudaniyat,
curate synergies.” released in 1997, she says she felt
And that, said London Mayor a calling to help introduce Suda-
Sadiq Khan, who opened the city’s nese music to a global audience by
annual Eid Festival on July 2 at adapting tradition to her own per-
Trafalgar Square as part of Shub- sonal vision of the style.
bak, is “the great joy of London,” “Sudanese music is a mix of
a “global city” where “our diversi- Arabic and African music. Our mel-
ty is our strength.” odies are so melancholic, and our
rhythms are complex. We have this
Rasha, born in Khartoum, Sudan, desert land, with really dark nights
describes her genre as Sudanese jazz and really hot weather. It’s hard
rooted in Arab and African music. In but beautiful, [with] the wisdom of
addition to vocals in Arabic as well as
Spanish, English, Nubian and Creole, being old. And the wiser you are,
she plays 'ud and percussion. the more melancholic you are.”
Wael Alkak, a former member of the Syrian National Orchestra, left his country for Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and the US, recording
folk musicians as he went. The project took the name Neshama and became a band, whose musicians drove fusions of house loops
and beats with the sounds of traditional instruments at the Rich Mix venue.
Wearing cowrie shells in her hair and elaborate, patterned idea was to collect seven songs and rearrange them with pop-
hoops in her ears, Rasha—she tends to drop her family name ular and ethnic elements, plus fusion with a string section or a
Sheikh Eldin—performed twice in one day for Shubbak: first brass section.”
on the main stage in Trafalgar Square and then later that eve- That first album broke many molds. Sampled clips from
ning in the intimate, historic setting of Bush Hall. popular Syrian songs—some recorded shakily on mobile
Fronting a four-piece band of electric bass, saxophone, cel- phones inside war-besieged cities—became the basis for wildly
lo, and her brother Wafir on ‘ud, while accompanying herself innovative digital reimaginings, driven by Syrian musicians
on a stand-mounted tabla drum, Rasha sang fluid, irresistibly recorded in Jordan on traditional instruments such as the
danceable songs of emotion and freedom that have created rababa, a one-stringed Arab violin, all enhanced by Alkak’s
their own genre, which she describes as Sudanese jazz. synthesizers. Alkak directed the whole project from afar, often
“No music and no people are pure,” she says. “We all over video-call apps from a studio in Istanbul, Turkey.
influence each other, and music—especially music—is the eas- They named the project Neshama, which in Arabic “has
iest language for everyone. Musical styles come and go, and the meaning of some-
they’re not the same when they come back.” one who is good just
for being good, with-
Neshama out expecting anything
One thread running through almost all of Shubbak 2017’s back,” Alkak says.
music was the unusual, even startling, often exhilarating, Neshama earned
experience of hearing young, intensely dynamic musicians Alkak a music residen-
build shattering innovations on one of the oldest foundations: cy in Paris and became
Arabic popular song. As Shubbak unfolded over two weeks, I the name of his band, a
kept hearing traditional folk themes and snatches of popular shifting group of musi-
melodies reinvented—none more dramatically than by classi- cians that now recreate
cally trained, Damascus-born Wael Alkak. Syrian popular songs
“I used to play the national anthem in school when I was for a new generation
five or six years old, on the accordion,” he remembers. in exile.
Alkak, 35, sighs, pushing his unkempt hair back off his “Digital music is what
face as he tells of his recent anguish: six years of self-imposed we do. It includes some
exile from his homeland. elements from acid house
What has sustained him are his musical roots. music and techno-trance
“My story with traditional music started in 2008, with my music, but we build it
first recordings. I still use some of them now. Wedding songs, on our recordings that
songs at popular events. Before 2011 this kind of music didn’t we made with our musi-
interest anybody. For my first project, in 2012 in Beirut, the cians,” says Alkak.
12 AramcoWorld
At the Rich Mix because digital is popular,” he says. “I don’t like borders in
music and arts ven- music or in life.”
ue in London’s hip-
ster neighborhood of Oxford Maqam
Shoreditch, Alkak was Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries went through
joined by his brother a cultural renaissance of homegrown reforms and innovation
Yazan on ‘ud and three known as al-Nahda (The Awakening). It energized everything
London-based Syri- from art and music to philosophy and journalism. It’s this
an musicians, includ- “Nahda era” that captivates Oxford Maqam, which formed
ing Jammal al-Sakka, in 2008 in the city of Oxford and whose name references
Alkak’s own percussion the melodic system of classical Arab music, explains vocalist
teacher from Damas- Yara Salahiddeen.
cus Conservatory. They “Nahda music became marginalized in the 1950s and
played from Neshama’s looked upon as old-fashioned, and I think that was unfair,”
newly released second says ‘ud player Tarek Beshir.
album, Men Zaman “So we went back and studied it, and found that it’s actu-
(Long Ago). ally very rich—full of room to grow and improvise. So we
It was a wild rework these earlier songs into our own point of view.”
show. Alkak—thin, Their Trafalgar Square set, which evoked much clapping
blazing-eyed, shag- and hip-shaking, showed how skillfully they look both back
gy-haired—worked and forward, with Beshir and Salahiddeen dueling on vocals
his decks, live-mixing accompanied by an eclectic mix of ‘ud and nay (end-blown
beats and samples. He flute) alongside acoustic double-bass.
left showmanship to al-Sakka, whose party piece was deftly It was also during al-Nahda that the first method of
flipping his tabla drum through 360 degrees midair during the recording developed, and Oxford Maqam’s debut album
most ferocious of solos without missing a beat, drawing yelps features new versions of al-Nahda era songs that it recorded
of delight from onlookers who crowded the stage and seemed using 100-year-old wax cylinder technology, the group first
to know every song intimately. Intense amplification turned then digitized. “Most of our repertoire we know from old
traditional wedding melodies such as “Dahrij Ya Hamam” recordings—and the oldest of them are recorded on wax cyl-
(“Dance, Pigeon!”) into desperate, swirling, rough-edged inders,” says qanun player and King’s College London music
dance beats that rattled the ribcage, driven by urgent bass professor Martin Stokes.
lines and drenched in dry-ice smoke and mood lighting. “They impose a lot of demands on musicians because
Is Alkak a DJ? you’ve got a very short time, two minutes and 20 seconds, to
“I’m a musician, definitely, but sometimes I need to DJ get the whole thing in. The wax cylinder changed the [music]
Yara Salahiddeen, left, performs vocals for Oxford Maqam, whose Trafalgar Square set, right, revived songs of 19th- and early 20th-
century Egypt, evoking a lively response in the audience. The band’s repertoire stems from some of the first recordings ever made in
Egypt, on wax cylinders.
Debuting in the UK at Shubbak, Hawidro introduced audiences to an Afro-Egyptian sound that mixed historical regional influences with
contemporary styling that all flowed in a smooth, jazzy style, led by rhythmic percussion and dashed with funk. “We wanted the return
of our heritage, particularly our African side that has long been left behind,” the band says on its Facebook page.
in some important ways,” Stokes says, before describing the an on-stage “selfie moment” at Bush Hall drew sustained
band's recent recording sessions as a “fascinating experi- cheers and laughs.
ment.” But then, he adds, “We thought, ‘This doesn’t sound What did they make of playing in London? Nazmi was
too bad!’ So we made it our first CD.” pumped.
“London is really important, and Shubbak is such an
Hawidro incredible event. I really like the audiences. They are really
Hawidro is a band on a mission, “trying to represent the Afri- interested in [world] cultures. They praise it and give a lot of
can Egypt in a contemporary feel,” says lead singer Ahmed credit to the bands that play, which is something we really
Abayazeid, known to all as Zizo. appreciate.”
“That’s what the name stands for: hawidro means ‘the
return’ in Nubian. We need to return to our African culture Tarek Yamani
that’s been forgotten.” You could miss award-winning jazz pianist Tarek Yamani in
Nubia is a territory along the River Nile that straddles the street. His figure is slight, and he wears clothes that are
the border between Sudan and Egypt. Nubians, Abayazeid only remarkable for being unremarkable—plain designs in
explains, have their own cultures and languages. They are plain colors. His hair is tousled. He moves lightly, uncertainly.
part of wider Arab and North African cultures but also dis- The fingers are a clue, if you happen to notice them: They
tinct enough that “that’s how this music survived,” says bass move a lot. Spider-like.
player Ahmed Nazmi. “It’s more close to West African styles When you sit down opposite him to talk and suddenly
than to the rest of Egyptian music.” pitch headfirst into his eyes and then find yourself scrabbling
On their first-ever visit to London, Hawidro played three gigs backward up a slope to keep contact with the world before
in two days under the Shubbak banner, their eight-piece ensem- he’s even said a word—that’s when you realize there is far
ble driving loping, clattering percussive rhythms that blended more to this man.
with the fluidity of saxophone, synthesizer and electric guitar. Yamani, 37, was born and grew up in Beirut.
There were few signs of nerves. Zizo’s vibrant energy and “When I was six, my parents discovered that I had some
permanent grin under long dreadlocks was contagious, and talent for music,” he says.
14 AramcoWorld
“[I was] hearing music from TV and trying to replicate it bringing a unique sound while revisiting Sama’i Yamani and
on this little keyboard—that’s how my father made the con- reimagining a traditional Arab dance form, dabke, for solo
nection. So he got me a piano teacher.” jazz piano.
Later, Yamani was enrolled in the Lebanese National High- By then living in New York, he went deeper into Arab
er Conservatory of Music, but he hated it. music for his 2014 album Lisan Al Tarab, developing classical
“I was lucky I had this instinct to stop,” he reflects. “What music from Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq in a jazz trio setting.
I wanted from music was something else—not classical train- “I consider myself a scientist in a very modest way: I like
ing. When my teacher told me, ‘Do this,’ I would go home to make experiments, mix things, try stuff out.”
and do something else. She tells me right hand, I want to do The Lisan Al Tarab track listing—lisan is an Arabic word
left hand. I had the jazz spirit without knowing it.” for language and tarab refers to the trance-like atmosphere
As a teenager Yamani lost himself in rock. shared by performers and listeners—formed the basis of
“I was exposed to Pink Floyd since I was four. My father Yamani’s show at upmarket Kings Place.
used to listen to them all the time, and the Beatles, Jimi Hen- The trio’s effortless communication over fiendishly tricky
drix, Led Zeppelin. I went through heavy metal, all the way syncopated rhythms mesmerized the crowd. Unprepossessing
to death metal. I taught myself guitar, learned solos, made a in a simple T-shirt, quietly spoken at the mic, Yamani created
band. And then, at 19, I discovered jazz, and that’s where this chromatic keyboard runs that felt like sweeps of bright paint
illumination happened in my life. Everything changed. across a canvas, punctuated by Yassine’s plunging off-beats and
“Jazz has everything I like: the spirit of improvisation; Afif’s architectural bass. Sama’i Yamani was like a call from the
rhythmic sophistication; harmonic technicality. So I left the 19th century to the 21st, its rare 10/8 time signature and minor
guitar, back to the piano and went on this adventure.” resolutions breaking down dizzyingly amidst chords and unpre-
For his 2017 Shubbak show, Yamani worked with long- dictable beat drops over Yamani’s left-hand drone.
time collaborators Elie Afif on acoustic bass and Khaled Yass- “The sound was immense,” says Alise Kirtley, a sing-
ine on drums—but he has not always followed convention. In er-songwriter from London who heard the sold-out show.
2010 he won the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz Compos- “Passion without theatrics. Tarek’s left-hand work was exqui-
er’s Competition for Sama’i Yamani, his startlingly original site, at speed and perfectly placed, with insane time signatures
rework of a traditional Arab musical form in contemporary that they all nailed. This was original music—not just another
jazz style that featured Syrian vocalist Rasha Rizk. This set night of standards—and each with a story.”
the frame for exploring musical boundaries among Arab, Characteristically, Yamani is not standing still. His album
African and African-American traditions. this year, Peninsular, draws jazz improvisations out of the tra-
“Jazz has the secret. It has the secret of groove. It car- ditional khaleeji (gulf) music of the eastern Arabian Peninsula.
ries African DNA in rhythm, and we all carry this somehow. “There’s something special about khaleeji music,” says
Learning this language, the jazz language, for me had a mys- Yamani. “The main characteristic of khaleeji rhythm is the
tical significance. Jazz was born in the United States but it swing, and these rhythms are all so African.
spoke to me so much. I felt it was a duty to be able to under- “This strong need [to cling onto cultural roots] is every-
stand it and speak it fluently.” where,” he adds.
On his first album, Ashur (2012), Yamani fearlessly “There are two kinds of musicians: traditionalists and
reshaped the jazz trio itself by substituting tuba for bass, explorers. I am the latter, but both are needed. If it weren’t for
the traditionalists, we wouldn’t
know what was going on before.
Then you get people who make
new traditions. Everything we
do echoes something old. No
music comes out of nothing.”
Missy Ness
The last night of the Shub-
bak Festival was given over to
Kahareb (Electrified), a five-hour
deep dive into Arab contempo-
rary underground electronica
Plain dress belies Tarek Yamani's

magesterial command of his
instrument. The 37-year-old jazz
pianist, born in Lebanon and now
living in New York, played intricate,
fast-fingered grooves at Kings Place
together with bass and drums. Jazz,
he says, “has the secret of groove.”
His latest work draws on traditional
melodies and rhythms of the east-
ern Arabian Peninsula.
Closing out Shubbak’s musical program
of more than 20 total artists was the aptly
named Kahareb (Electrified), which featured
five electronic artists, including Missy Ness,
which is the DJ name of Paris-born Tunisian
Inès Abichou. Right and lower, she concen-
trates on her syntheses of traditional instru-
ments, contemporary beats, global hip-hop
and soothing Arabic vocals, all to keep the
Rich Mix audience dancing.
with multiple DJs and musicians. Each

performer brought a fresh perspective,
from the danceability of Beirut World
Beat to French-Palestinian DJ Sotusura
and Jordanian guitar legend El Jehaz.
Anchoring the first half of the show
was Inès Abichou, known by her DJ
name Missy Ness, who fused pounding
British drum & bass with American rap
and the hardest of Arab hip-hop.
Born and brought up in Paris, Abi-
chou became the first Tunisian female people living in outer Paris.”
DJ after hearing cult Palestinian hip-hop collective Ramallah Inspired by the urban underground in both Paris and Lon-
Underground in high school. don, Abichou also draws on wider musical currents.
“They showed me that you can totally do this contempo- Though her focus is on Arab and North African influenc-
rary underground urban sound and mix it with Arab music es, she says, “I have huge interest in Latin American hip-hop,
without being kitschy,” she says. and recently I’ve been digging into the Senegalese hip-hop
“I admired the way they did this synergy between all scene. In Tunisia I love the rapper Klay BBJ. He’s very inter-
their influences without being orientalist. I started listening esting in the way he uses language.”
to French hip-hop, talking about our reality—the reality for So, with such vibrant contemporary sources to draw on,
16 AramcoWorld
why does she, like so many of Shubbak 2017’s artists, look “At the beginning I felt isolated [in Cairo]. It was very
back to traditional or classical Arab music? hard to find places to play. That changed in the 2000s, and
“I can’t really answer you. I have this double culture, now it’s the contrary: I feel very inspired in Cairo. There’s
French and Tunisian Arab. Young [French] people my age a massive audience base, a lot of music coming out. Cairo
have absolutely no idea about their music from the last cen- is vibrant.”
tury. But we [Arabs] know our musical history. We all have a As well as his own work, Louca plays in several bands and
story with Fairouz or Um Kulthum or Abdel Halim Hafez or composes for arts, theater and film projects. For Benhayyi
Sayed Darwish.” al-Baghbaghan, he drew on Egyptian shaabi (peoples’) pop,
Missy Ness played loud. She blended heavy Arabic hip- warping and distorting it into new forms—darker, wilder,
hop with all sorts stranger—then test-
of percussion and A fan photographs Kahareb headliner Maurice Louca, one of Cairo’s pioneering elec- ing out the results
tronic musicians, as he takes his audience into what he calls Egyptian psychedelia,
chants and snatch- a genre-blending journey rooted in the country’s instrumental heritage, accompanied with friends.
es of American rap by his own electronic beats and a trio of fellow live musicians. Though he draws much “People talk a
or bits of Egyptian from Cairo’s vibrant music scene, he says no label is very accurate. “It’s hard to describe lot about the folk-
music now, with all the genres melting.”
song. Her hands, lore element, which
in constant motion I can’t understand.
over her laptop It’s a very con-
and twin turn- temporary record
tables, swapped for me. There’s no
vinyl while her sampling of any
sneakers tapped old music.”
along at the end Yet sever-
of her skinny al tracks feature
jeans and the deeply traditional
audience danced instruments, such
and danced. as the rababa or
“It’s very easy buzuq (a kind
for people to have of lute). Doesn’t
this preconception that show a nod
of who I am. Some towards musical
people are very heritage?
surprised when “I never thought
they hear me play. of them as old,” he
‘This is not at all says. “The rababa
what we expected!’ and buzuq are very
they say. My main challenge is always related to getting out- much alive in contemporary music. For me it’s not about nos-
side of these boxes.” talgia at all.”
And there was precious little nostalgia in evidence on
Maurice Louca stage. Louca evoked the density and complexity of his music
Headlining Kahareb, Cairo-born composer and musician with beats and samples and live electronica, the hammer of
Maurice Louca played from his 2014 album Benhayyi Massimo Trisotto’s bass and Tommaso Cappellato’s relentless
al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot), a swirling, surrealist jour- drums spinning a whirl of sound to knock you sideways.
ney into what he calls Egyptian psychedelia, although that But despite headlining a bill of DJs, Louca draws a firm line.
label “is not very accurate,” he admits. “It’s hard to describe “I’m in no way a DJ,” he declares. “This is composed
music now, with all the genres melting.” music.”
Consciously unshowy, unassuming, Louca hesitates before
telling how he picked up guitars as a teenager before he
Journalist and broadcaster Matthew Teller is based in the
switched to keyboards and samplers in his early 20s. UK. He writes on the Middle East for international media
“I couldn’t have imagined having musicians play my work and makes documentaries for BBC radio. Follow him on Twit-
when I started,” he says. “The technology helped a lot, exper- ter @matthewteller and at his blog www.QuiteAlone.com.
Andrew Shaylor is a portrait, documentary
imenting with sampling and drum machines. You’d use it to
and travel photographer based just outside London and
compensate for not having access to musicians. But when my has visited 70 countries. He works with a variety of maga-
first record [Garraya, 2011] did okay, I immediately invited zines and has published two books, Rockin’: The Rockabilly
musicians over. It’s a pleasure to work with people on realiz- Scene and Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
ing ideas.”
www.shubbak.co.uk
Something of a cult figure on the European alternative music
circuit for his uncompromising sound, Louca has toured festi-
vals and club venues there and across the Arab world for sever- Related articles at www.aramcoworld.com
al years, but his home city remains key to his musical vision. Beirut beats: J/A 16
ISLAMIC SCIENCE'S
India
CONNECTION
Written by
A L O K K U M A R and S C O T T L . M O N T G O M E RY
From the mid-10th century

CE, one of
f history’s great
scientific eras began to
flourish across Islamic lands.
Like the European Renaissance, it was
marked as much by cultural exchange,
synthesis and dialog as it was by individ-
ual discovery. Connections forged among
scholars and scientists of Islamic lands with
contemporaries and predecessors beyond
their own borders led to an unprecedented
pooling of knowledge over generations and
continents. The Indus Valley and the wider
Indian subcontinent proved to be deep wells
of the scholarship that gradually came to be
known westward via translation into Arabic
as well as Persian. From the observations of
philosophers to the calculations of mathe-
maticians, from the models of astronomers
to the treatises of physicians, these works
This detail from a 17th-century painting by Mughal court helped shape the era that became known as
painter Bichtir shows one of the court’s many chroniclers, “the golden age of Islamic science” and—
who helped the Mughal elite advance an imperial culture
that included scientific concepts developed locally and afar. much later—our own.
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HERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD / ALAMY (DETAIL); OPPOSITE, LEFT: BRIDGEMAN IMAGES (DETAIL); TOP, WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE / ALAMY (DETAIL)
In this detail of another 17th-century painting by Bichtir, a devout Muslim practitioner receives the Qu’ran, Islam’s holy
book, from a seated Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor. At lower left, an Ottoman sultan looks on deferentially. The
hierarchy reflects not only Jahangir’s position, but also his responsibility to advance scholarship.
were translated, among them the Upanishads, the

NAT U R A L P H I L O S O P H Y pinnacle part of the Vedas script, which he considered
imbued with the power to make people “imperishable,
After the Muslim conquest of India, several rulers, unsolicitous and eternally liberated.” His rendering
including most notably the Mughal emperors of the was later translated into Latin in the 18th century by
16th and early 17th centuries, beginning with Akbar Anquetil Duperron of France. It was read in turn by
the Great, facilitated translations of Indian literature the eminent 19th-century German philosopher Arthur
into Persian and Arabic. Several well-known Indian Schopenhauer, who was so impressed by the univer-
books such as Mahabharata, parts of the Vedas, Yo- sality of its message that he kept a copy open on a
ga-Vasistha, Bhagavad-Gita and Bhagavata Purana table near his bed.
were thus translated. The most fundamental views Much of what Akbar and his successors learned to
contained within these texts express the crux of value, however, had already been observed centuries
natural philosophy: a universe in constant transfor- before. During his years in India in the 11th century,
mation, wherein elements are interconnected, sharing Abu al-Rayan al-Biruni, an all-around erudite from
in absolute unity and having a sequence of creation. Kath in Central Asia, studied Sanskrit and researched
The Yoga-Vasistha, for example, a collection of the arts, literature and science. He analyzed meta-
stories and fables nearly 30,000 verses in length, physics in Vedic texts and translated a number of
was appreciated for its “realities, diverse morals, them into Arabic, including selections from Patanjali’s
and remarkable advice.” Yoga-Sutras, a philosophical compilation, and the
Under Dara Shukoh, some 50 major Indian works 700-verse Bhagavad-Gita. In his own book, Kitab
Ta’rikh al-Hind (Book of Indian History, popularly the work began to give way in the West to Aesop’s
known as Alberuni’s India), he introduced Muslim well-known Fables. Yet in India itself, as in most Mus-
readers to Indian scholarly culture. Al-Biruni admits lim nations, the parables of Kalila and Dimna contin-
in the introduction that despite cultural and linguistic ue to be read to teach children and adults about hu-
barriers, his book is an attempt to offer “the essential man nature and good behavior. Most recently of all, it
facts for any Muslim who wanted to converse with has been the subject of exhibitions in places as diverse
Hindus and to discuss with them questions of religion, as Manama, Bahrain, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
science, or literature.”
He also identifies crossovers between Indian sci-
ence and literature, notably Kalila wa Dimna (Kalila M AT H E M AT I C S
and Dimna), a celebrated book in the Middle East
since the early medieval period. Based on an earlier Beyond philosophy and fables, Vedic texts sought to
Indian work, Pancatantra (Five Principles), it was comprehend the cosmos and its workings, including
written down from the oral tradition in the third cen- creation cycles and planetary motions, thus framing
tury BCE, and it uses animal fables (Kalila and Dimna some of the questions that have underpinned human
are jackals) to tell stories about human conduct and scientific inquiry ever since. Modern mathematics,
the arts of governance. as we know it, would be inconceivable without the
It came to Arabic circuitously, first via Burzuwaih commentaries of Indian philosopher Bhaskara, who
(or Borzuy), a physician to fifth-century CE Sassan- lived in the sixth and seventh centuries CE, on the
id king Anoushiravan. Burzuwaih traveled to India Aryabhatiya, written in Sanskrit by Aryabhata, the
to collect medicinal herbs for his monarch, and he earliest known Indian astronomer. The Aryabhatiya
returned with the Panca-tantra, which he translated laid out the rotations of planetary objects as well as
into Pahlavi, a northwestern Persian language. After advanced techniques for numerating. Bhaskara’s com-
the introduction mentaries on it
of Islam into represented one of
the region, the the first popular
eighth-century writings to employ
author and thinker the concept of
Ibn al-Muqaffa zero, which was
translated it into assigned then a
Arabic and retitled symbol familiar
it Kalila wa Dim- today: a circle.
na. So popular was The fundamen-
the book 500 years tal concept that
later, the 13th-cen- void, emptiness or
tury Christian king absence is itself an
of León and Cas- essential element
tile, Alfonso “The of the cosmos had
Wise,” included it existed in the cul-
among works he ture of the Indus
ordered translated Valley from a very
into Old Castilian. early period. That
In truth, under this should evolve
a range of differ- A manuscript edition of Kitab al-Qanun al-Mas'udi, a treatise on astron- into a numerical
omy by 11th-century scientist Abu al-Rayan al-Biruni, shows the motions
ent titles—and at of planets represented as circles. Originally from Central Asia, al-Biruni
symbol thus might
times with new traveled to the Indus Valley, and for more than 10 years he studied San- seem logical in
additions and skrit and researched the region's arts, literature and sciences, translating a mathematical
a number of works into Arabic.
revisions—Kalila system designed to
wa Dimna remains describe and pre-
one of the most widely read works of literature in the dict the motions of the universe. The zero is, in fact,
world, popular throughout all parts of Asia as well as a “placeholder” as much as a number: It moves other
the Middle East, North Africa and Europe up through numerals to the left by one place, thus increasing their
the 18th century. Starting a few decades after 1800, magnitude by a factor of 10. Zero was thus both an
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idea and an actual number. this medium of calculation is an 11th-century work
When Arab and Persian thinkers learned about by scholar and judge Said al-Andalusi of Córdoba
zero, they transliterated its word in Sanskrit, sunya titled Tabaqat al-Ùmam (Book of the Categories of
(“empty”), into a roughly corresponding Arabic sifr. Nations). Seen as the first world history of science,
In the early 1100s, when Arabic works were first al-Andalusi’s compendium credits the Indus Valley for
translated into Latin, Adelard
lard
la rd o
rd off B
Bath
atth called
a leed iitt cifrae.
cal ciifr
f ae.
aee. “great
“gre
“g reeat
at strides
strrid
i es inin the
the
h study
stu
tudy d of
dy of numbers.”
A century after that, Fibonacci
nacci
acccii ccalled
allle
l d iitt ze
zephir.
zeph
ph
phir
hir
ir. No
No less
esss ssignificant
les iggn
niific antt tto
fican
an o modern
mod mathematics are the
From there, the term became ame
am works
wo rks of Muhammad ibn Musa
orks
rk
zéro in early modern French ncch al-Khwarizmi.
all-K Khw hw Born in the late
and, in English, zero. Mislabeled for several eighth
e gh
ei ghth h century in the Khwarazm
tth
Equally important was oaasis,
oasis,sis,
si s in what is now Khiva,
Braah
Bhaskara’s contemporary, Brah- h-- centuries in the West Uzbe
Uz bek
be
Uzbekistan,k al-Khwarizmi
magupta, a fellow Indus V
mathematician (and astrono-
Valley
alle
alle
al
no
l y
o-
as “Arabic numerals,” mo
m ove
ove
moved
reign
reig
re ig
reign
veded to Baghdad during the
gn of o Al-Mamun. There, he
mer) who helped develop the thee the decimal system servved as a teacher and scholar
se
served
decimal system—the 10-digit,igi
g t,
t, in the
in thhee famous Bayt al-Hikma
base-10 system of numbering ing
ng was conceived in India (HHou
(House ouss of Wisdom), where the
that serves the world as thee arrts
artsts of of translation and scholar-
alphabet of all calculation.. M
Mis-iss- and transmitted to the ship
ship p reached
re their zenith. His
e in
es
labeled for several centuries in Middle East even before w ittin
wr
writings ng freely reference mathe-
ral
the West as “Arabic numerals,”a s,
s,”” m ti
ma
maticaltica
ca computations borrowed
and
it was conceived in India and d the rise of Islam. ffrrom
from m thet Indus Valley. In his
transmitted to the Middle E astt
as
East Kita
Ki
Kitabtta
ab al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala
m.
even before the rise of Islam. (TTh
(The he Book
B of Manipulation and
From Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ad ibn
ad ibn
bn Ibrahim
Ibr
brahahim
ah im
m aal-Uqlidisi,
l Uq
l- qlilddiissii,
i, a Reest
s or
orat
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ati n),, he
io
Restoration), he lays
layys out
out its itss purpose:
p
maattiici
m
10th-century Arab mathematician, cian
an we we know
kno
now w that
tha
hatat p r orr
ri
prior
to the introduction of numerals from India, the Islamic [To teach] What is easiest and most useful in
world expressed numbers through a system of letters, arithmetic, such as men constantly require in cas-
much like the Roman numeral system. es of inheritance, legacies, partition, lawsuits, and
It was around the seventh century CE that the Indus trade, and in all their dealings with one another,
Valley-based system became competitive. Severus or where the measuring of lands, the digging of
Sebokht, a seventh-century Syrian bishop and natural canals, geometrical computations, and other ob-
philosopher, wrote of the rivalry: jects of various sorts and kinds are concerned.
I will omit all discussion of the science of the This composition served as a popular introduction
Hindus … their subtle discoveries in the science to what became algebra, based on methods acquired
of astronomy, discoveries which are more inge- from India, which al-Khwarizmi simplified from their
nious than those of the Greeks and the Babylo- original metrical (poetic) forms, writing them out
nians; their valuable method of calculation; their in prose with explanations that have resonated ever
computing that surpasses description. I wish only since. The Kitab al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala, translated
to say that this computation is done by means into Latin, made a significant impact in Europe—so
of nine signs. If those who believe, because they much so that part of its title, al-jabr (“restoration”),
speak Greek, that they have reached the limits of became synonymous with the equation theory that we
science, they should know these things. know today as algebra.
The third major mathematical contribution with
The people of the early Indus Valley used tablets connections to India is the function we call sine.
(takht in Arabic) covered with a layer of sawdust or Ubiquitous in science and mathematics, its history
sand to write numbers and perform mathematical cal- transcends the boundaries of one country, one culture
culations. The Arab world adopted this computation- or one period. It appears in the Aryabhatiya as tables
WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE / ALAMY
al practice, calling it hisab al-gubar (dust-board arith- of half chords, trigonometric solutions equal to sine
metic). Since the practice does not leave a permanent tables. In Arabic, al-Khwarizmi, through a transla-
record, we are left only with scant information about tion of the work, introduced sine in Zij al-Sindhind,
these tablets. One of the earliest documents describing which was much copied. An 11th-century version
of this book, by the mathematician, astronomer A S T R O NO M Y
and economist Maslama al-Majriti of Córdoba,
Spain, was translated into Latin during the early Brahmagupta lived in north-central India, in Ujjain,
12th century. This Latin rendering was brought into and he set his city as the Greenwich of the ancient
English in 1962 by the scholar Otto Neugebauer, and world by associating it with zero longitude. Brahma-
today it serves as a key resource for our understand- gupta’s work gained in popularity and influence in the
ing of al-Khwarizmi’s knowledge in astronomy and Middle East, where calculating solar and lunar cycles
trigonometry. and positions was part of workaday routines, and it
The Arabic term for sine, geib or jaib, represents was translated more than once into Arabic. Portions
an adapted form of the term jya (“bowstring”) used of it, including the use of Ujjain as a prime meridian,
by the peoples of the Indus Valley. In truth, the Arabic were adopted by al-Khwarizmi in Zij al-Sindhind,
word jaib came to have multiple meanings: pock- which also established the ziy tradition in Islamic
et, fold or bosom. It was rendered as sinus in Latin astronomy. This term came from ziy, a term born out
(“pocket,” “bay”), possibly through a mistranslation, of the Pahlavi language, which connotes a thread or
by the most prolific of all Arabic-to-Latin translators, a cord. It referred to tables of operations that al-
12th-century Italian Gerard of Cremona. By the 17th lowed astronomers to determine positions of the sun,
century, sinus had evolved into the abbreviated sin. moon, stars and planets; the time of day according to
position; prayer times; and more. Comprising trigo-
The Elusive Measure of Longitude

Most
Mo st his isto
tori
to r ess of scien
ri ciience
en
nce att t ri
r bu
bute te the firirst
s effor
ffor
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ts to layy a systeysteem off gri
ys r d lin
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in orrrld
l map to
ld
G ee
Gr eek k aststro
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uryy BCEE and n Hip ippa
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arli
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vi ve fro
rom m any
off the
hese se souourc rces
rc es,, how
es owev ever
ev err. Latatititud
it
tud
u e was eas asy:
y: It was the h hei eighghtt abo
gh b ve thee hor oriz
izzon
o of the sun at
noon
no onn or the pol oles
esta
es tarr in the nig
ta ightht sky
ky.. Sim
impl
plee too
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suureeme
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on h
quad
qu adra
ad rant
ra nt and nd,, a bit lat aterer,, the Ara
er rabi
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bi an ka
k ma
mall—a sim i plplee but eff ffec
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ti ve str
trin
ing-
in g and-
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ca rdbo
rd boar
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e
Long
Lo ngit
ng itud
it ude,
ud e, howowev ever
ev er,, was elu
er lusisive
si ve.. It cou
ve ouldld onl
nlyy be deteter
ermi
er mine
mi ned
ne d usi
s ngg tim
ime—e—ho
e— h riizo
ho zontntal
nt al disista
tanc
ta ncee
nc
equa
eq uals
ua ls tim
ime, e, due to the rot otat
atio
at io
on of the Ear arth
th. A ref
th efereren
er ence
en ce mer erid
idia
id ian
ia n was essssen
enti
en tial
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al evere
er
quit
qu itee eno
it nougugh.
ug h. Hipippap rc
pa rchuhuss und
hu nder e st
er stoo
ood
oo d thi
hiss and pla lace
ced
ce d it thr
hrouough
ou gh Rho hode
des,
de s, in the wes este
tern
te rn Med
rn ed-
iter
it erra
er rane
ra nean
ne an,, whi
an hile
le Brarahmhmag
hm agup
ag upta
up ta
pref
pr efer
ef erre
er red
re d Ujj jjia
ian.
ia n. The Su Sury rya
ry a Sid d-
dhhan
anta ta,, a set of tre
ta reat
atis
at ises
is es draraftfted
ft ed in
thee six
th ixthth
h cenentu ry CEE, lik
tury
tu ikew
ewis
ew isee sho
is how w
astr
as tron
tr onom
on omer
om erss of the Ind
er ndusus Val alleleyy
le
used
us ed the tot otalal lun
u ar ecl clip
ipse
ip se,, whi
se hich
ch
alll obs
al bsererve
er vers
ve rs wou o ld pre resusuma
su mabl
ma blyy see
bl
at the sam amee mom menent,t, to com ompa pare
pa re
th
he tim me at som omee lococatatio
at io
on wit ithh thah t
alon
al ongg the merid
on errid
idia
ian.
ia n. How owev ever
ev er,, non
er onee
off the
hese se effffororts
or ts prorove
ved
ve d def efin
init
in i iv
it ivee
unntitill the dev e elelop
opme
op ment
me nt of the mod oderern
er n
mech
me chan
ch anic
an ical
ic al clolock
ck,, whi
ck hich
ch cou ould ld keeeepp
time
ti me ove verr dissta tanc
ncee acc
nc ccururat
ur atel
at elyy and
el This intaglio print depicts a Venetian artist’s regard for the tech-
repe
re peat
pe ated
at edly
ed ly..
ly nology of Arab astronomers, circa 1513.
22
22 A
Ar
AramcoWorld
a oWo
amc World
rld
nometric tables, this proved superior to the Ptolemaic influenced by Indian tradition. In his works, we find
chord function that had been used to date by Islamic mention of the availability of an Arabic translation
scholars in timekeeping and the deciphering of astro- of Caraka-Samhita, a medical text first written in
nomical mathematics. Sanskrit before the second century CE. A century
Al-Khwarizmi could have chosen Baghdad, his before Al-Biruni, Al-Kindi from Baghdad wrote a
place of residence, as the medical formulary called
prime meridian. How- Aqrabadhin (Pharma-
ever, perhaps due to the cology), an English
prevalent practice in the translation of which was
Arabic-speaking world published by Martin
and al-Khwarizmi’s de- Levey, an American
pendence on the Indian professor of Semitic
astronomical tables, he languages, chemistry and
kept Ujjain, just like mathematics. Accord-
Greenwich endures as a ing to Levey, about 13
world standard despite percent of the book
the fading of the British originates from the
Empire in which it origi- Indus Valley. In his view,
nated. As we know from however, “many of the
Said al-Andalusi, it was Persian materia medica
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Regarded as the “founder of Indiology,” Al-Biruni advanced
may more properly be
al-Fazari, an eighth-cen- sciences in the Islamic world with his translations of and re- considered to be Indi-
tury philosopher, mathe- flections upon a wide range of Indus thought. This illustra- an,” thus suggesting
tion depicts his understanding of the phases of the moon.
matician and astronomer, that as much as a third
who was the first person of the plants and drugs
to translate into Arabic, under directives from Caliph described originally came from India.
Al-Mansur himself, Brahmagupta’s Brahmasphuta-Sid- In all these fields of knowledge and inquiry, then,
dhanta, which provided mathematic evidence for we find deeper interconnections among the scientif-
calculating planetary epicycles and their positions, and ic culture that developed in Islamic lands and India
even diameters of the Earth, sun and moon, beyond than are often discussed in (mostly Western) histories
the Indus Valley. Al-Khwarizmi later summarized this of science. This kind and degree of connection, we
work in Zij al-Sindhind, which remained an important should note, is not unique to the advances of Islamic
reference work in Europe during the medieval period, science. It is much of the story of how knowledge
including, for example, for the Castilian texts Toledo itself has advanced through regional and global pro-
Tables and the Alfonsine Tables. cesses of contact and communication—processes that
advance at their most rapid pace ever today.
SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES / ALAMY; OPPOSITE: HERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD / ALAMY
MEDICINE
Coauthors of A History of Science in World Cul-
Indian medical texts and ideas also had potent tures: Voices of Knowledge (Routledge, 2015), from
which they have adapted this article, Alok Kumar is
influence in Islamic scientific circles. Al-Tabari, an
a Distinguished Teaching Professor of physics at the
early ninth-century scholar from Tabaristan along the State University of New York, Oswego; Scott L.
southern shore of the Caspian Sea who later served as Montgomery is a geoscientist, lecturer and affiliate
physician and counselor to Caliph al-Mutawakkil in faculty member at the Henry M. Jackson School of
International Studies at the University of Washing-
Baghdad, wrote an encyclopedic book on medicine,
ton, as well as author and coauthor of 10 books,
Firdaws al-Hikmah (Paradise of Wisdom). This book three of them on the history of science.
contains some 36 chapters and refers to the works
of noted Indian physicians such as Caraka, Susruta, Related articles at www.aramcoworld.com
Madhavakara and Vagbhata II. Al-Tabari devoted Al-Biruni: M/J 17
much space to Ayurvedic medicine, a science born of Islamic roots of hospitals: M/A 17
Islamic roots of pharmacy: M/J 16
early Indus Valley civilizations and recorded in San-
Unani medicine: M/A 14
skrit literature. Astronomy: S/O 10, M/A 91
Al-Biruni’s thoughts on medicine, likewise, were Arab science: M/J 07, M/J 82
MOROCCO'S
C i n e m a
Written by T r i s t a n R u t h e r f o r d
Photographs and video by R e b e c c a M a r s h a l l
“Walk past ancient Egypt and then turn left at Tibet,” f the desert film sets look even
vaguely familiar to a visitor, he
says Amine Tazi, general manager of Africa’s largest explains, that’s because they prob-
film and studio complex. “That’s where we filmed the ably are: Recently they were also
Saudi TV series Omar,” about the second caliph of backdrops for, among other things,
episodes of the US television hits
Islam, Omar ibn al-Khattab. Homeland and Game of Thrones. But
Omar took a full six months of shoot-
ing to produce 30 episodes, in Arabic.
That was solid business for the two
studios Tazi manages, Atlas and CLA, which
were, until this year, solely responsible for
making the town of Ouarzazate, poised
between the Sahara desert and the Atlas
Mountains in eastern Morocco, into a conti-
nental capital of cinema.
“Omar reused an existing film set
to look like Damascus,” recalls Tazi, a
no-nonsense studio boss whose role model
for dealing with production challenges is a
bulldozer. “Then we built [a replica of] the
holy Ka‘bah in the desert next door.” He
With the 20-hectare production studio in the

background, at the edge of the desert beneath
the Atlas Mountains, a sign decorated like
a film director’s clapboard advertises Atlas
Studios’ hotel in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
24 AramcoWorld
A faux-Pharaonic entrance sets the tone for CLA Studios, which, with its partner Atlas, offers interior and exterior film sets that can take
filmmakers from ancient Egypt to fairytale kingdoms—and almost anywhere in between. Used for countless Arab film and television
productions since its founding in 1983, it has also hosted world-famous directors such as Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Oliver Stone.
notes he holds a government license that allows him to draft tribe whose ancestors fought for France in Vietnam and, as
in the Moroccan army as extras: For Kingdom of Heaven, a result, married and brought home dozens of Indochinese
in 2005 Tazi equipped 3,000 real Moroccan soldiers with women. Scorsese placed their Asian-looking offspring to
spears and sandals so they could fight a running battle scene the rear of his set pieces, with a mere 60 bona fide Tibetans
across an imaginary Palestine. “Our studios are known as front-of-shot.
‘Ouallywood,’” he quips. “Hollywood, Bollywood, they all It’s clear that both the region and the movie industry enjoy
come to us to film.” a largely symbiotic relationship, but it’s precarious, explains
It’s a testament to its unique topography that the cinema Tazi. If the moviemakers succeed, Ouarzazate will maintain
industry in Ouarzazate (pr. Wahr-za-zaht) predates Tazi’s the current windfall that now is financing a new wave of
studios. Clear mountain air funnels down from the High Moroccan and Arab actors and directors. If they don’t, the
Atlas to the north. It rarely clouds over, let alone rains. In town risks a return to its status as an obscure, if picturesque,
1962 British producer-director David Lean became the first dusty crossroads between the Atlantic and Timbuktu.
top producer to utilize the site’s crystal-clear atmosphere “Fortunately, the wealth our blockbusters bring is trans-
when he shot shimmering desert scenes for Lawrence of ferable to the town,” says Tazi. By way of example, when a
Arabia. Those same dunes, casbahs and mountain lakes now production is shot wholly within Morocco, around 30 percent
stand in for Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter, rural Afghanistan, of the budget is spent locally on everything from hotels and
the Russian steppe and more. meals to helicopters. That’s a huge boon for a city nudging
Morocco’s human diversity also helps. If a movie needs 100,000, especially when one considers that Kingdom of
African actors, local casting directors tap a regional data- Heaven had a budget of $130 million. More recently, in 2014,
base of on-call extras in towns like Erfoud, near the Algerian when NBC’s marathon A.D. The Bible Continues checked into
border. For Mediterranean types, they phone contacts in Ouarzazate, it employed some 600 local artisans for half a year.
Tangier to the north. In 1997 American director Martin Outside the walls of Tazi’s adjacent studios, ironwork-
Scorsese planned to fly 400 ethnic Tibetans to Ouarzazate for ers are hammering out swords and shields that will be laid
his Dalai Lama epic Kundun, but local fixers visited a Berber down only after filming. Street seamstresses sew tunics
A boom-mounted camera stretches over film-crew members, actors, cameras, tents and gear at CLA Studios during the filming of episodes
in the HBO series Game of Thrones, one of about 100 international television episodes and 20 feature films that annually come to the area.
and togas in the warm Saharan air. My driver tells me he of film-technician courses at the École de Cinéma de
regularly doubles as an extra for $25 a day plus lunch. My Ouarzazate and production and scriptwriting classes at the
barber, it turns out, moonlights as a hair-and-makeup man, a Faculté Polydisciplinaire. All that’s needed now to make
profession in the $50-per-day category. The semi-desert that a foreign movie is to fly in a director and a bag of cash.
surrounds Ouarzazate may not have resources like oil or gas, According to studio bosses, about 80 percent of movie staff
“just excellent natural and human resources,” concludes Tazi. are now Moroccan.
As the movie industry matures, those resources are more These figures are confirmed by Mohamed El Hajaoui, a
and more tapped. Entrepreneur Mohamed Belghmi, who dashing 27-year-old actor who also leads tours of the Atlas
first saw a need and CLA Studios.
Amine Tazi, general manager of CLA Studios and Atlas Studios, says the increasing
for a permanent (The latter was
number of film productions in Ouarzazate not only creates new opportunities for Mo-
movie-production roccan and Arab-world actors and directors, but also boosts income for everyone in the created in 2004
space in 1983, region, from taxi drivers to restaurant owners. as a partnership
built Atlas Studios. among Italian
When the Michael studio Cinecittà,
Douglas adven- the late producer
ture The Jewel of Dino de Laurentiis
the Nile was shot and Moroccan
here two years investor Saïd
later, 20th Century Alj, and both
Fox flew out the studios are now
camera crew, co-owned.)
TOP: KEITH BERNSTEIN / HBO
assistants, grips, The studios, it

animal handlers seems, can fabri-
and even cater- cate anything
ers. Now those anywhere—a
slots are usually virtual planet of
filled by graduates plaster, plastic
26 AramcoWorld
and polystyrene held standards and Roman
together with bits and shields that had their
strips of wood and origin in some earlier
metal. With a few deft production. Behind
moves, the squad can them, gathering dust
transform the Luxor set in a hanger-like store-
into Constantinople, room the length of
Jerusalem, Makkah two buses is a wonder-
or Persepolis. It’s here land flea market full
that young assistant of abacuses, leather
directors like Mehdi moneybags, brass
Elkhaoudy learned bowls, scrolls and
the trade shooting knick-knacks from
scenes on the US pretty much any
television series Prison Set pieces created for the 2002 French fantasy comedy Astérix & Obélix: Mission century you wish for.
Break, which turned Cléopâtre, starring Gérard Depardieu and Christian Clavier, await their next assignment. The nearby costume
a real local primary department, mean-
school into a temporary Yemeni jail set, and the recent Ben while, is busy dyeing garments for an American-boy-meets-
Kingsley series Tut, in which El Hajaoui played a small role. Arabian-girl desert drama.
The actor demonstrates the set’s resilience by picking a giant The whinny of horses eager for their midday meal leads
foam “rock” off a medieval catapult and hurling it against a us to the animal training center, where 17 staff care for
plywood “citadel wall,” which holds fast. two dozen camels and donkeys, indispensable creatures for
El Hajaoui and I walk into a plaster-built mock village any desert tale. Horse trainer Brahim Rahou leads us to a
that provided the backdrop for scenes in Gladiator (2000), handsome albino stallion named Spirit, who is the stable’s
yet another Hollywood epic attracted to Ouarzazate by its most recent celebrity. “This horse carried Khaleesi,” Rahou
combination of ethereal light and down-to-earth costs. (That explains, referring to the nickname for the lead role of
film, he points out, is one of four veteran British director Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, which shot some
Ridley Scott shot here.) As he shows me around, we meet five episodes here.
Arab and European movie tourists. Sauntering over the In sum, the Ouarzazate studios and region annually attract
sets, playfully emulating cinematic heroes, they are also a around 10 foreign and 10 Moroccan feature movie produc-
source of income to the town and, more generally, Morocco. tions, plus 100 or so predominantly international television
Ouarzazate’s hotels reported a 40 percent gain early this year episodes—a number that has been rising, as the series format
over last year, and over the past 10 years, national foreign- has gained traction on outlets such as Netflix and Amazon.
visitor totals have risen from around 7 million to more than Nationally produced films, such as Les Indigènes (2006), a
10 million a year. drama about Moroccan soldiers who fought for France in
The props departments at both studios appear to be work- World War II, are intensely popular, in most years attracting
ing overtime. Among the upcoming films is an Indian historical as much as a third of Moroccan cinema visits and making up
epic, for which staff are polishing Saracen swords, Phrygian half of the country’s top 10 biggest-grossing films. What the
Car props stand in the “parking lot” at Atlas Studios and, in the distance, the snowcapped High Atlas Mountains decorate the horizon.
Right: The Oscar Hotel in Ouarzazate shows off costumes, props and production photographs from the 2000 film Gladiator, shot on location.
Ouarzazate native Naceur Oujri, left, has appeared as an extra in more
than 150 international and Moroccan movies made in his hometown.
Stuntman as well as trainer of camels and horses, Brahim Rahou poses at
Atlas Studios, which keeps some two dozen camels and donkeys on hand.
the Ouarzazate Film Commission. Since 2008 he has pulled

in several million-dollar productions by force of personal-
ity alone. A few years ago, “Werner Herzog came to our
Ouarzazate stand at the Los Angeles Film Festival,” remem-
bers Zitouny, a swashbuckling dead ringer for a Moroccan
likes of actor El Hajaoui and animal trainer Rahou require Johnny Depp. “I sold our region’s beauty like I was selling a
is a sustained throughput of hits. These days, although work dream.” He sold it so well that the famous German director
is going well, runs the sentiment on the ground, everyone is offered him an acting job, Zitouny says. “I said, ‘Of course,
always eager for more. Werner, but only if you film in Ouarzazate!’” The result was
It’s fortunate that the job of attracting foreign movies here Queen of the Desert, a 2015 biodrama about British writer
has fallen to Abderrazzak Zitouny, the whirlwind director of and policymaker Gertrude Bell.
Abdelali Idrissi, left, co-launched the Ouarzazate International Film Festival in 2016, which screened movies for the general public and
visitors as well as in the Ouarzazate town jail and also to schoolchildren who had never watched a film set in their hometown. “The prisoners
told us to come back next year!” he says, and the students were “very happy to assist” in critiquing the festival’s animation selections.
Posing in the “Tibet” set at Atlas Studios, actor Mohamed El Hajaoui, right, has worked as an extra in films including Tut (with Ben Kingsley);
he also guides tours of the studios.
28 AramcoWorld
Abderrazzak Zitouny, director of the Ouarzazate Film Commission, takes a center-stage throne on a movie set at the Ouarzazate Cinema
Museum. The commission is the second-oldest on the continent after one in South Africa, and it has reeled in several million-dollar
productions since it opened in 2008.
Initial filming enquiries land in Zitouny’s downtown office smooth the way, from import procedures for camera equip-
near the École du Cinéma. As the second-oldest movie author- ment to discounted entrance fees to local sights and much
ity on the continent after South Africa, the Ouarzazate Film in between. However, the most enduring allure is Morocco’s
Commission has clout. A foreign producer or location manager value-added-tax (VAT) exemption on all supplies and services,
is usually looking for an idea of local dunes, mountains or which knocks roughly 20 percent off the top for starters.
medieval-looking villages, professional photos of which “Combined with low costs for hotels, drivers and extras,
Zitouny keeps on his hard drive. A database of every carpen- we can make a movie for 50 percent less than in the United
ter, caterer and grip in southern Morocco is expected to be States or Europe,” Zitouny says. In addition, he says, a single
completed this year. “That way we can prove that we can offer permission grants filming rights anywhere in the country.
blockbuster movies and TV shows everything,” he says. “Try doing that in Paris or Dubai,” he says with a smile.
When a production assistant arrives in Zitouny’s office, The incentives are paying off. The daily flight from
he or she is driven about 30 kilometers northwest of town Ouarzazate’s tiny airstrip to Casablanca on the coast, which
to the hill village of Aït Benhaddou. If the producer is connects with Royal Air Maroc’s direct New York flight, is
American, Zitouny shows off its UNESCO-protected kasbah welcoming stars. This year the downtown Musée du Cinéma,
where Prince of Persia: a nearly endless exhibition
The Sands of Time (2010) of movie props that opened
was filmed. With Arab FEZ in 2007, will inaugurate
guests, he expounds upon RABAT two screening rooms for
The Message (1976) by CASABL ANCA local viewing of locally
S
LA
legendary Syrian direc- made feature films as well

AT
tor Moustapha Akkad, as screening of pre-produc-

LE
an Oscar-nominated
exodus-to-Madinah epic
morocco MID
D tion rushes before hopping
back into the desert for
shot in the same mountain MARRAKECH final shots.
A
S
L
outpost. AT Zitouny led a recent
“The movie business is a HIGH presentation to Morocco’s
hard-nosed one,” Zitouny OUARZAZATE movie-loving King
says, admitting that the line
L AS Mohammed VI, which
between making a film in -AT SAHARA helped win support for a
TI
one place and not in another forthcoming, additional
algeria
AN
rests heavily on the bottom tax rebate on foreign film

line. The commission can productions. Even with
that, it is an “We needed
intensely competi- money for screen-
tive industry: Can ing equipment,
Ouarzazate attract sound systems
the globalized, digi- and even meals,”
tized moviemakers says Idrissi as he
of tomorrow? And strides around the
locally, can its film ramparts of Kasbah
industry ensure Taourirt. He
that all get a piece presented his festi-
of the big-budget val budget to Atlas
pie? Studios and the
The young man film commission,
who has saddled but there were no
himself with takers. A last-min-
those two tasks is Seeming like a clash of centuries, extras costumed as Roman centurions practice ute donation from
another film-fanatic marching at Atlas Studios for a scene in the series Ben-Hur while a mock F-16 fighter jet, a Saudi solar energy
livewire. Abdelali used in The Jewel of the Nile, stands behind them. developer and oper-
Idrissi is co-founder ator, ACWA Power,
of the brand-new Ouarzazate International Film Festival. paid for the stages and rigs that were scheduled to be erected
The 37-year-old prop master and art director produced the very next day. Idrissi and his colleagues plugged the event’s
an acclaimed short film program on a shoestring budget remaining budget holes from their own pockets.
for its debut in April 2016. With a passion for inclusivity, “It’s fair to say that we lost several kilos in weight during
Idrissi even screened movies in the local prison. We meet in the six days of screening,” he explains. Just 200 people came
Ouarzazate’s Taourirt Kasbah, where parts of the original to the opening-night screening of Wintry Spring, a short film
1977 Star Wars were filmed. about an Egyptian girl entering womanhood. There were more
“It’s great that we welcome Ridley Scott and Martin viewers on day two when a member of the film commission
Scorsese,” explains Idrissi. “But our industry needs a rela- dropped in on the Iraqi documentary Dyab, about a Kurdish
tionship with the set builders and costume workers who don’t Yazidi boy who wants to become a filmmaker. By day three the
always have the technology to watch the movies that they screening in Ouarzazate jail (“The prisoners told us to come
helped to make. Essentially, we are a cinema city without any back next year!” Idrissi says) boosted viewer numbers into
cinemas.” By screening 100 video shorts on pop-up screens four figures. Then the film commission stepped in with a small
around town—10 of them filmed in Ouarzazate or wider donation, too.
Morocco—the festival drew crowds of up to 1,000 to see After an early start the following day, the jury lugged rented
their city on the silver screen, many for the first time. equipment to the film-set village of Aït Benhaddou. Among the
Idrissi co-launched the festival with high hopes and audiences were 220 schoolchildren, many of whom had seen
basic tools. “We used Facebook, Google Plus and film Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie filming in their kasbah but had
contacts to spread the message,” he says. Word went viral never watched a movie set in their hometown. They were “very
and some 3,000 entries flooded in from countries as diverse happy to assist” in critiquing the animation section, Idrissi
as Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia and Nigeria, as well as says.
the US (which topped the list with 406 entries). In all, the festival logged 5,000 viewers, nearly half under
“We were surprised,” Idrissi says with a laugh. ”Then we age 25. “Of course, many people who could not travel to the
realized we were obliged to watch every single short film!” Moroccan desert were watching some of the short films on
To handle the volume, organizers expanded the film-selection YouTube and thinking about Ouarzazate,” says Idrissi.
committee to include Idrissi’s The make-up of the
brother Abdessamad, who Centerpiece of this display at the Oscar Hotel is a poster for the event’s real-life audience
works in film production French edition of The Jewel of the Nile (1985), starring Michael was critically important to
Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.
in Berlin, and his German Idissi’s aims. Pupils from the
colleague Stefan Godskesen. École de Cinéma and the
Although the festival is “for Film Faculté got to witness
all ideologies,” the commit- the latest filmmaking
tee checked each cinematic techniques while gleaning
short for culturally offensive tips from the directors who
content, whittling down the had flown in from abroad.
entry list to 100, set screen- More importantly, attendees
ing dates and booked some took a tour of the sets and
TOP: AMINE TAZI
15 directors to attend. Just digital facilities at Atlas and

one ingredient was missing: CLA Studios. “In 10 years’
cash. time, these short-film guys
30 AramcoWorld
might be top directors
or producers,” notes
Idrissi. For the 2017
edition of the festival,
featuring technical
and artistic workshops
in both city acade-
mies, he is aiming
to accommodate 50
visiting directors
when the event turns
on its projectors in
September.
It’s all a distant
cry from the very
first movie ever shot
in Morocco. Back
in 1897, France’s
Lumière brothers
captured flickering
images of a goatherd,
a sequence that would
now seem quaintly About 30 kilometers west of Ouarzazate, the hillside mudbrick village of Aït Benhaddou is both a UNESCO World
stereotypical. Now Heritage Site and a popular set for many films, including The Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator and more.
a new generation of
Moroccan filmmakers are opening studios where they aim to relative safety is a huge asset for foreign pictures,” Alami
beat the cinematographers from the West at their own game. explains. However, she adds that even beyond this lies
In April producer Khadija Alami opened Oasis Studios what has always been top currency in movies: Beauty. “It is
Morocco near Oasis du Fint, 15 kilometers from downtown Ouarzazate’s film-set looks that keep producers coming back
Ouarzazate. Location, producer and equipment are all A-list. for more.”
It was this oasis that backdropped in Lawrence of Arabia
Tristan Rutherford is the recipient of four major travel jour-
and Prince of Persia, and Alami’s credits include Homeland
nalism awards while traveling among 60 countries in his
and Captain Phillips (2013). “There is so much demand for career. Currently based in Nice, his work appears in The
Hollywood and Arabian movies it warranted opening our Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Atlantic Monthly. He
studio,” says Alami, whose new one-stop shop will rival has authored two books about Turkey for National Geo-
graphic. Rebecca Marshall is a British editorial photogra-
incumbents Atlas and CLA. For the first time, foreign televi-
pher based in the south of France. A core member of Ger-
sion productions can be scripted, shot, edited and delivered man photo agency Laif and Global Assignment by Getty
without leaving the compound and using a crew entirely Images, she is commissioned regularly by the New York
Moroccan. Times, SundayTimes Magazine, Stern and Der Spiegel
(www.rebecca-marshall.com).
Alami’s
Hollywood-
www.ouarzazatefilmcommission.com
standard studios
Filmed in Ouarzazate exceed anything
on offer in Related articles at www.aramcoworld.com
Morocco’s Film in Saudi Arabia: M/A 17, J/F 14
QUEEN OF THE DESERT ( 2 0 1 5 ) Film in Kyrgyzstan: S/O 16
more traditional
Film in Jordan: S/O 15
THE PHYSICIAN ( 2 0 1 2 ) rivals, as well Film in North Africa: J/F 92
as anything
BEN-HUR ( 2 0 0 9 )
in Jordan or
BODY OF LIES ( 2 0 0 7 ) Tunisia. Only
VIDEO:
the production
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ( 2 0 0 5 ) aramcoworld.
powerhouses com
PRISON BREAK ( 2 0 0 5 ) of Turkey and
Egypt produce
CLEOPATRA ( 1 9 9 8 )
more Middle
GL ADIATOR ( 1 9 9 8 ) East-related
films. “Political
THE JEWEL OF THE NILE ( 1 9 8 4 )
stability means
L AWRENCE OF ARABIA ( 1 9 6 2 ) that Morocco’s
The traditional architecture of Muharraq, once the capital of
Bahrain and pearling capital of the Gulf, contrasts with the
skyscrapers of Manama, the island-nation’s capital today,
just a couple of kilometers to the west. Opposite: Visitors
sample traditional Bahraini fare in Saffron, a popular eatery
in old Muharraq along the island’s 3½-kilometer urban trail
called the Pearling Path.
32 AramcoWorld
WRITTEN BY
S Y LV I A S M I T H
PHOTOGRAPHS
AND VIDEO BY
RICHARD DUEBEL
I
t’s 9:30 on a Saturday morning, and already the
usual crowd is building up outside Saffron, a café on
Muharraq, the second-largest island in the archipelago
of Bahrain. Locals and foreigners chat congenially while
they wait for tables to open. Parents distract restless chil-
dren by pointing out to them the 400-year-old date press
sunk into the ground that extends under the café, visible
through glass panels in the floor.
It’s a typical weekend rush at Saffron, one of the most
successful of the restored and repurposed historic buildings
on the island that was once the capital of Bahrain during its
centuries of pearling prowess. It’s also a fine place to take on
sustenance before setting out on the 3½-kilometer “Pearling
Path” to view 17 restored historic buildings that celebrate
Muharraq’s heritage—part of a string of local sites that in
2012 UNESCO placed on its World Heritage List.
“There is great interest in the food that our ancestors
would have eaten,” explains Saffron owner and chef Narise
Kamber. “Many Bahrainis have studied and worked abroad
and are used to international food. Here they get something
local, traditional, but with a contemporary twist.” The mix
of old and new is carried throughout the café’s concept from
its exterior, which blends with the narrow lanes of the nearby
marketplace to its menu, music, and décor that fuses indus-
trial chic with heritage.
The most popular meal, Kamber says, is the eight-dish,
“full Bahraini” breakfast, which is served “in small pots all on
one tray, tapas-style,” she tells a table of first-timers. And, she
adds, “We can easily make it vegan.”
Among the offerings are sweet vermicelli cooked in rose-
water, cardamom and saffron; beans slow-cooked in a spicy
tomato sauce; thin bread brushed with an anchovy-like fish
paste; a vegetarian kebab; and a subtly spiced potato dish
The glass-walled visitor’s center near Bu Maher Fort
at the southern tip of Muharraq overlooks the historic
launching point for Bahrain’s annual summer pearling
fleet and marks the southern starting point for the
Pearling Path.
provided prosperity, social cohesion and identity.

Bahrainis—from ship captains to pearl divers,
chandlers to knife sharpeners—had to leave pearling
behind as Bahrain’s capital moved a couple kilome-
ters west to Manama.
Muharraq’s residents also gradually abandoned
most of the large pearling houses that had been
centers of society. Over the years, these structures
of timber, faroush (a stone harvested from the sea)
and plaster fell into disrepair. In 2002, however, this
began to turn around. Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed
Al-Khalifa, a pioneer in the region’s conservation
served with milk tea. All are enhanced by music playlists movement and now president of the Bahrain Authority for
Kamber has compiled from childhood memories of hearing Culture and Antiquities (BACA), inaugurated the old capital’s
folk songs hauntingly sung by local artists. “Youngsters often first major restoration, the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed
ask me if they can download,” she says with a laugh. Al-Khalifa Center for Culture and Research. It quickly became
“We enjoy eating here because of the atmosphere,” says a venue for poets, writers and philosophers—and a catalyst for
a young regular named Abdulla, who is tucking into a “full a new Muharraq.
Bahraini” breakfast. “And the food tastes great!” Shaikha Mai’s effort was, she says, born out of her respect
The heavy, 100-year-old wooden door at Saffron’s entrance for Shaikh Ebrahim, her grandfather, and her determination to
is another relic of the past, and it is a portal to the future for keep his memory alive. Born in the mid-19th century, he was
Muharraq—a link between the island’s rich history and its recognized in the region as a man with a thirst for knowledge
newfound modern identity as a culture hub. and debate who attracted the best minds to his majlis, or salon,
In the early 1930s, Bahrain had to recalibrate its economy until his death in 1933.
to account for both the discovery of oil and the arrival, from Among his guests were Farida Mohammed Saleh Khunji,
Japan, of the cultured pearl. Together these collapsed the old one of Bahrain’s most prominent religious and literary
pearling culture, which had developed over millennia and intellects; Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo, a leading businessman
in the Gulf region; Hafez Wahbah, an educator and author
Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khalifa, president of the Bahrain who moved to Riyadh and served as Saudi Arabia’s ambas-
Authority for Culture and Antiquities and the driving force behind sador to Great Britain during World War II; and Louis P.
the establishment of the Pearling Path, stands alongside Bahraini
journalist and poet Hassan Kamal at the inauguration of Al-Khalifiyah Dame, MD, a physician at the American Mission Hospital in
Library in the old city center of Muharraq in April. Bahrain who was known for his work in the region.
The center, Shaikha Mai
explains, was never planned
in isolation. Her vision was
to build on—not over—
Muharraq’s pearling past.
“The center has a number
of strategies when it comes to
the old pearling houses,” she
explains. “Some of them we
can refurbish, as they are still
structurally sound. Others have
deteriorated to the point where
we can only remove the rubble
and start afresh.”
In the case of Shaikh
Ebrahim’s house, architects,
engineers, planners and design-
ers, all mainly from the Arab
world, turned the house—for
the second time around—into
a new kind of magnet for
intelligentsia, one featuring
a 300-seat auditorium with
34 AramcoWorld
a research library
upstairs. On its
walls, photographs
portray the hundreds
of personalities who
have lectured, read
poetry, performed
music and provided
other cultural
stimulation since the
building’s reopening
15 years ago, includ-
ing Zahi Hawass,
Egypt’s former
antiquities minister,
and Zeinab Badawi,
a British television
and radio journalist
who was born in
the Sudan.
This year’s anni-
versary provided a
chance to assess the
area’s changes, and This narrow, shaded, traditional Muharraq thoroughfare, built to channel cooling breezes, is one of the main
the BACA celebrated streets on the Pearling Path. Press House, Al-Nuzul Guest House and Kurar House are all in this vicinity.
and promoted it with
“15/15,” an art exhibition spread among 15 restored houses. Enders-Bhattia. “This magnificent early 20th-century house was
Hala Al Khalifa, director of Culture and Arts at the BACA constructed as a family home,” she says. “Now that it’s been fully
and an artist herself, stepped back in time with an installa- restored, we have an art gallery space for temporary exhibitions.”
tion called “Light” that projected, on the center’s façade, the It was here that, for the “15/15” event, photographer and
names in Arabic of leading figures who had visited the house artist Camille Zakharia showed his series of black-and-white
during Sheikh Ebrahim’s time. “I wanted to highlight the images of Muharraq’s narrow streets, “Stories from the Alley,”
legacy of my great-grandfather on the spot where he met many which use photographs, collage and calligraphy. “I have
forward-thinking personalities from countries throughout the recorded the rich, traditional Bahraini architecture,” Zakharia
world,” she explains. says. “I am hoping to encourage people to appreciate and
Visitors to the three-month-long celebration could walk preserve their architectural heritage, rather than just being part
along the new, winding, pedestrian-only “Pearling Path,” of this globalized world.”
which zigs, zags and wiggles through the southwest part of Shaikha Mai, he says, has been “a force behind all these
Muharraq. Officially it starts northbound from Bu Maher Fort traditional houses here to ensure they remain standing, and you
on the island’s southern tip, which was the historic departure can see the quality of restoration that has taken place to regain
point for pearl divers as they left for a four-month season every their beauty.” The costs of the restorations have been borne by
summer. Opalescent, pearl-round streetlights guide visitors both public and private sectors through Shaikha Mai’s spon-
from a simple pearl diver’s house, Bayt al-Ghus (from ghaw- sorship initiative called “Investing in Culture,” which brings
was, Arabic for diver)—now a small museum displaying the Bahrain’s cultural sector into partnership with its banking and
basic tools of the trade (a nose clip, a knife and a string bag financial institutions.
for the oysters)—to the grand houses of the pearl merchants, As more houses were restored, the Ministry of Culture
several now endowed with new purpose. took the project further, winning UNESCO approval for the 17
Other stops include a coffee shop where pearl traders used Muharraq buildings, three oyster beds that lie north of the
to chat and play carom, a traditional board game, and the island, part of the shoreline and Bu Maher Fort to all be placed
Mohammed bin Faris House for the local, traditional sawt on the World Heritage List. The agency’s report called the
music, where every Friday night there is a free concert. The places “the last remaining complete example of the cultural
standard of craftsmanship in all the buildings makes the resto- tradition of pearling and the wealth it generated ... from the
rations stand out, says Sophia Delobette, a local guide. “There second century to the 1930s,” adding that collectively they
is imagination in the way each building has been envisaged to represent an “outstanding example” of how human interaction
suit another era,” she says. “What I really like is the attention with the environment shaped the economy and society. “We
to detail and the meticulous finish.” are proud that this final expression of the pearling industry has
One of the largest and most elaborate buildings on the trail, been recognized internationally,” Shaikha Mai says.
the two-story Bin Matar House, reflects the importance of The listing has become the springboard for the restoration
that family in the pearl business, explains its director, Melissa of the entire old city of Muharraq, which is now one of the
Al-Khalifiyah Library stands on the site of its
namesake predecessor, its upper floors can-
tilevering out to make best use of the limited
space. Along with a reading area, a research
center and an Internet lab, it offers a cultural
program for youth in the heart of Muharraq.
making Muharraq a more pleasant place in

which to live,” she says.
Already, passengers from cruise liners
that dock in Bahrain are taken to the shore-
line near Bu Maher Fort. At one of the
stops on the Pearling Path, Kurar House,
they visit a suite of rooms displaying
traditional clothes sporting gold trimming
still made there by a complex hand-weav-
ing process. As she watches four women
entwining the multiple threads, British
tourist Anne Scott comments, “It looks a
bit like the cat’s cradles we used to make as
children, only far more complicated. The
results are better too!”
The finished golden bands that emerge
best-preserved historic cities in the Gulf region, with another after the interchange of threads are put on sale as decorative
600-odd buildings to be restored. edging for clothing. At around $25 a meter, it may be expen-
According to Noura Al-Sayegh, a Lebanese architect who sive, but Scott thinks it is a great value. “I have an evening
works closely with Shaikha Mai on the reno- dress that I can stitch this onto,” she says. “I think it will
vations, the importance of the creation of really add something exotic.”
LOWER LEFT: BAHRAIN MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION

the Pearling Path goes beyond rebuild- As the group of visitors makes its way along one of the
ing. “We hope to improve the economy narrow lanes, members enter a small guesthouse that accom-
by creating cultural tourism as well as modates speakers, poets and singers who appear at the Shaikh
Ebrahim Center. In its previous incarnation, the restored
house was home for a merchant who traded in ropes and
wood used to construct dhows, such as those that carried
Muharraq pearl divers, explains Delobette.
Next stop is Press House, the former dwelling of Abdullah
Manama
Al Zayed, founder, in 1939, of the first weekly newspaper in
Bahrain and the Gulf region. His 100-year-old home has been
reborn as a place of both architectural and literary illumi-
nation dedicated to preserving Bahrain’s press heritage with
displays and an archive of the country’s early journalism. Al
Zayed’s typewriter, official letters written on it in English by the
BAHRAIN
The Pearling Path map, left, classifies

both onshore and offshore sites.
The path winds north from the
shore through the oldest part of
Muharraq, which lies northeast of
Bahrain’s main island.
36 AramcoWorld
multilingual owner, his bed, photographs of the man himself,
and back copies of the newspaper that ran until 1944, shortly
before his death, all give texture and context to the restoration.
From one of its upstairs windows, a contemporary addi-
tion to the neighborhood is brightly visible: a wall filled with
the colorful calligraffiti of French Tunisian artist eL Seed. It
contrasts dramatically with its immediate neighbors, the under-
stated Siyadi House, whose plain exterior belies an intricate
interior, and the adjacent Siyadi Mosque, built by Ahmed bin
Jasim Siyadi, a 19th-century pearl merchant, about the same
time as the house. The mosque, too, has been restored for
community use, and its 10-meter minaret will not be overshad-
owed anytime soon: Zoning laws now limit buildings in the
historic area to two stories.
Not far away, Hamad Busaad, a young entrepreneur, runs
his design business and Busaad Art Gallery in the house that
belonged to his great-grandfather and where his father, now
an artist, was born. “You need a good architect to retain the
authenticity, the traditional look and feel, of an old house like
this,” he says. “The restoration’s been quite a challenge. The
building became a cold store, then a corner shop, after my
family moved out. My father decided to get the house back
after we had driven past one day. Seeing it made my dad decide
to turn it into an art gallery.”
After all the quiet good taste of the earlier restorations,
confidence has grown, and some of the most recent restorations
and new buildings are near-riots of color and design innova- The brilliant colors of a wall mural by eL Seed provides a modern
tion. Dar Muharraq, for example, has tangerine-colored walls complement to the traditionally whitewashed architecture of Siyadi
House, a World Heritage Site that stands nearby. Built in the 19th
and an outer “curtain” of metal chains that rises whenever
century, its plain exterior belies an intricately crafted interior.
dances are performed there and falls again afterward to close
off the building. The new Al-Khalifiyah Library is entirely
contemporary architecture: With a bronze sheen and gradually One can only imagine the astonishment—and pride—that
cantilevered upper floors, it’s like an inverted ziggurat—a design Muharraq’s divers and merchants might feel now if only they
that takes creative advantage of a small plot of land. could see their old neighborhood again, a bit like old pearls,
once forgotten but rediscovered, buffed and set on a string as
Bin Matar House, built in 1905 by pearling tycoon and philan- a new national treasure.
thropist Salman bin Hussain bin Salman bin Matar, was saved
from demolition and restored to house a pearling museum and art
gallery. Opposite: At Kurar House, embroiderers deftly entwine Richard Duebel is a filmmaker, photographer and art direc-
gold threads to make one of Muharraq's most famous crafts, the tor who has been working in North Africa and the Middle
decorative fabric trim after which the house is named. East for more than 20 years. His interests lie in culture, the
environment and the applied arts. Sylvia
Smith makes radio and television programs
from the Arab world as well as reports from Europe and
elsewhere that explore connections with North Africa and
the Middle East.
Related articles at www.aramcoworld.com

Craftsmen: M/A 99
Through the Ages: J/A 84
VIDEO:
aramcoworld.
com
REVIEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS
“… Cairo is not a megacity,

Without
endorsing the but rather an amalgamation of
views of any of
the authors, the
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path to greater and still be recognized, or pick
understanding.
up a conversation from years
Read more new reviews
and search more than 200 before with ease.”
book, music and video
reviews, 1993–present, at
Cairo Inside Out
aramcoworld.com
Trevor Naylor. Photographs by Doriana Dimitrova. 2016, AUC Press, 978-9-77416-756-0, $29.95 hb.
This richly illustrated book lovingly explores Cairo through insiders’ eyes and lenses. Naylor and Dimitrova stroll
through many of Cairo’s most famous neighborhoods (Zamalek, Old Cairo, Downtown) and visit monuments and
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These carefully captured perspectives speak volumes without shouting. —TOM V E RD E
Africa Solo: My World a broken bed, his hosts prepared decoration Moya Carey ties to the
Record Race from Cairo a tasty meal and treated him with Mosul court, or Chinese-style ceram-
to Cape Town kindness, even if they couldn’t quite ics from the late 18th to the mid-19th
understand his unusual quest. century that George Manginis traces
Mark Beaumont.
—BRIAN CLARK to Armenian traders in India. Others
2016, Bantam,
bring new insights to famous works
978-1-47352-
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695-2,
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How do you From the Fatimids to Fatimid Cairo carved the ceiling of
follow up cy- the Mughals Palermo’s Cappella Palatina in the
cling around 1130s and ‘40s,
Alison Ohta,
the globe then traveled to
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and then pedaling more Constantinople to
Rosalind Wade
than 24,000 kilometers work on a hall in
Haddon, eds.
from Alaska to the tip of the Great Palace.
2016, Gingko
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Library, 978-1-
a ride from Cairo to Cape
90994-290-5, £60/$85 hb.
Town? Mark Beaumont met that chal- Camera Orientalis:
lenge with aplomb in 2015, finishing This compendium of 23 Reflections on
in 41 days and 10 hours to smash the essays is dedicated to Doris Photography of the
old record of 59 days, but it wasn’t Behrens-Abouseif, who retired Middle East
easy. The 32-year-old Scotsman from the Khalili Chair of Islam-
rode unsupported, occasionally got ic Art and Archaeology at SOAS, Ali Behdad. 2016,
sick and had to locate lodgings each University of London, in 2014. University of Chicago
night, while averaging an astonish- The range and depth of the Press, 978-0-22635-
ing 260 kilometers a day on a route contributions are a fitting trib- 640-2, $30 pb.
from Egypt through Sudan, Ethiopia, ute. The essays are grouped
The Arab Imago:
Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and by medium: metalwork,
A Social History of
Botswana to South Africa. Though architecture, ceramics, books,
Portrait Photogra-
Beaumont’s focus on speed left him art and painting, and material
phy 1860–1910
little time to enjoy the continent and culture, the latter focusing
its people, his trip offered refreshing on motifs and techniques. Stephen Sheehi.
peeks into the local culture. In a Some examine such over- 2016, Princeton UP,
small town near Khartoum where looked pieces as a damaged 978-0-691-15132-8,
he found primitive quarters and 13th-century pen box whose $45 hb.
38 AramcoWorld
These scholarly titles examine the recounting of Machell’s life by prob- Readers will recognize some range of work in this genre to date.
works of some of the Middle East’s ably the world’s foremost expert on authors, notably Sir Arthur Conan Venetia Porter of the British Muse-
earliest and most influential native indigo is based in large part on five Doyle and Louisa May Alcott. um introduces the historical arc of
photographers. Not long after the illustrated diary volumes cover- —MARGARET P OWIS Arabic writing, while Juliet Cestar
introduction of photography in 1839, ing the years 1840–1856 that lay provides in a coda a chronology
European photographers fanned out half-forgotten in the British that relates select milestones in art
across Egypt, the Levant and Turkey, Library until they were The Race for Paradise: to historical developments. In be-
transforming the West’s romanti- brought to the author’s An Islamic History of tween, independent curator, writer
cized, Orientalist vision of the region attention because of their the Crusades and publisher Rose Issa discusses
“into images received as objective link to indigo. In this tour the organizing principle for the
Paul M. Cobb. 2014,
fact,” writes Behdad. Yet “utterly ne- de force, Balfour Paul in- book: “Innovation” (1950s–’70s),
Oxford UP, 978-0-19935-
glected in art-historical discussions” terweaves her own travels “Exploration” (1980s–’90s) and
811-3, $29.95 hb.
on the period is the fact that the and adventures in search “Circumnavigation” (2000–’15).
subjects of these early images stood of Machell into the story, The Race for Paradise The 43 artists she selected occupy
on both sides of the camera. Em- bringing her subject back offers fresh perspec- most of the book. She represents
braced “almost immediately by the to life as she identifies ever tives on medieval each with three to six works, a short
wealthy and powerful in the region,” more closely with him. The encounters between biography and quotes from the
photography became a vehicle for book’s many illustrations— Muslims and artist. Her selection drives home
local Middle Eastern photographers his and hers—add a great Christians. Western the astounding variety of artists’
to capture visions of themselves and deal to the narrative. readers will benefit from seeing the relationships to Arabic writing and
their environments. Such “Orientalist — C A RO L I N E STO N E Crusades “from the other side of will serve as a useful reference.
photography,” Behdad argues, the fence” and in a larger context. —LEE LAWRENCE
was a “mode of representation How I Became Middle Eastern readers will
produced through cultural con- a Mummy find much that is useful in
tact between the West and the this work—not only to dispel
Leena Pekkalainen.
East.” Dozens of historic imag- simplistic stereotypes of
2016, AUC Press,
es of the Middle East highlight Crusaders that populate
978-9-77416-811-6.
Behdad’s work. Sheehi writes extremist philosophies, but Andalusia of
$18.95 pb.
that the pioneering artists who also to introduce important Love (Andalus
established studios in cities Muslim and other Eastern al-Hob)
Lost in a Pyramid
such as Beirut, Alexandria, chroniclers, historians and
& Other Classic Marcel Khalife.
Cairo and Jerusalem captured commentators seldom read
Mummy Stories 2016, Nagam
“all walks of life, all classes, today. The author, a professor
Records,
and all ideological positions.” Andrew Smith, ed. of Islamic history, skillful-
B01BHFPSNA, $12.45 cd.
Their milieu was al-nahdah, 2016, British Library, ly illustrates his arguments with
a regional rebirth of Arab 978-0-71235-617-6, compelling anecdotes from Spain to The music and lyrics of Leb-
culture, chronicled in print and £8.99 pb. Sicily, the Levant and Mesopotamia. anese composer, singer and
pictures, where the camera He shows the Crusades were not an ’ud master Marcel Khalife
played a key role in recording These books’ epochal clash of religions or civili- have captivated international
and exhibiting “the new ideo- original views of zations, but rather a series of very audiences since he began
logical vision.” Garabed Kriko- ancient Egypt will particular battles between localities, performing in the 1970s.
rian (1847–1920) stands out captivate a wide cities and personalities, fought for Andalusia of Love carries on
as “Palestine’s most prolific” range of readers. reasons that have nothing to do with this extraordinary musical
photographer, whose images How I Became a modern concerns. Societies, East legacy. Khalife collaborated
of local officials, military fig- Mummy, a book and West, were organized differ- with the renowned Palestin-
ures and religious leaders left “for children and ently—with local kings and nobles, ian poet Mahmoud Darwish,
an archive of the “complex Egyptologists of antique economic structures and the whom he calls a “second
network” of relations “in the all ages,” follows like. Cobb captures tragic, shocking, soul in his heart,” for more
Ottoman Arab world.” the death of a pharaoh and the even uplifting human stories behind than four decades until the
— TO M V E R DE mummification process through that period and broadens our under- poet’s death in 2008. In this
ample cartoon-like illustrations. standing of a pivotal era. haunting suite of 14 pieces,
Deeper than The narrative is very easy to follow, —ROBE RT W. L E BL IN G Khalife explores Darwish’s
Indigo: Tracing making it a perfect book for a vision of a renewed Golden
Thomas Machell, parent or grandparent to read Signs of Our Age, harkening back to
Forgotten Explorer to a curious child who wants Times: From 10th-century Muslim-ruled
to know how mummies Calligraphy to al-Andalus where people of
Jenny Balfour
are made. The procedure is Calligraffiti the three Abrahamic religions
Paul. 2015, Medina
described in detail through coexisted peacefully. Per-
Publishing, 978-1- Rose Issa, Juliet
the dispassionate eyes of the formed by the Al Mayadeen
90933-953-8, Cestar and Venetia
dead pharaoh in chapters Ensemble—Khalife (’ud,
£22.99 hb. Porter. 2016, Mer-
concerning subjects such as vocals), sons Rami (piano)
rell, 978-1-8589-
Englishman Thom- washing, gutting, the brain, and Bachar (percussion), and
4652-8, $70 hb.
as Machell set off canopic jars and coffins. Jilbert Yamine (qanun)—this
to seek his fortune Lost in a Pyramid & Other In the late presentation deftly combines
in the East in the mid-19th century Classic Mummy Stories is a 1990s Princess Western classical, jazz and
when he was just 16. He traveled collection of tales published Wijdan Ali of traditional Arabic music. “I
widely in India, where he became an between 1869 and 1910. The stories Jordan introduced the notion of a was compelled to … break
indigo (and later a coffee) planter; vary from horror, to romance, “calligraphic school” of modern away from the traditional
Polynesia, where he fell in love with to comic, painting a fascinating art characterized by artists’ use of formats of oriental music
a chieftain’s daughter; China, where picture of how Egypt was viewed Arabic writing (see AramcoWorld and song and come up with
he witnessed the First Opium War; through Western eyes in the late M/A 97). Even though none of the a more personal musical
and the Middle East, where he had 19th and early 20th centuries—a authors mentions Wijdan’s work on work,” comments Khalife.
numerous adventures from Yemen period of great archeological and this subject, their book is nonethe- —PINEY KESTING
to Suez. This strange and compelling geopolitical interest in the country. less a continuation, showcasing the
EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS
CURRENT / SEPTEMBER Western inspirations. This display with revolving planets. Red Star
features a diverse selection of pat- Line Museum, Antwerp, through
Batik Textiles of Java. The Indonesian
tern and functional types, all from September 17.
Highlights from our island of Java is the principal source
the museum’s rich collection, along
of the brilliant textiles known as
searchable listings at with materials that further explain Between the Sea and Mountains
batiks. The term “batik” derives from the batik process. Art Institute of is a conversation of works by two
aramcoworld.com the Malay word meaning to draw Chicago, through September 17. generations of Azerbaijani artists
with a broken dot or line and refers who are exploring national, cultur-
to the wax-resist process by which Breeze 2017 by Hungarian-Syrian al and personal identities. The ex-
patterns are imposed on fabric. artist Róza El-Hassan is a search for hibition regards the geographical
Many countries, especially in Asia, answers to practical and existen- and historical context of Azerbaijan
produce wax-resist textiles, but the tial questions about migration, and describes the nation as Turkic-
Javanese have developed the most coming home and belonging. She speaking, which can be considered
sophisticated method for executing has built a dome that acts as a at once European and Asian, having
the process. Traditionally, women model for a community building or formed its cultural identity under
have been the primary producers of school in Syria, with drawings and Arab, Persian and Russian influenc-
batik. Dyeing, on the other hand, is a sculptures exhibited around it. The es. Yay Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan,
craft done by both men and women, installation also includes spheri- through September 29.
though indigo-dyeing falls solely to cal hanging gardens displayed in
men. The range of patterns, some dew banks, which are mechanisms
identified by name, numbers over CURRENT / OCTOBER
designed to extract water from the
a thousand. Javanese batik-makers air. The dome stands in the center Company School Painting in India
have always been open to a broad of a colored orbit representing a (ca. 1770–1850). As the British
range of sources for their patterns design for a real shelter. The “or- East India Company expanded its
and motifs, from local Javanese and bit” takes a cosmological round- purview in India beyond trade to
Hindu works to Chinese, Arabic and shaped form, much like the sun include diplomacy and administra-
Epicenter X: Saudi Contemporary Art

The first exhibition of its kind from the Kingdom of to political discourse, the artworks open windows
Saudi Arabia to appear in Michigan, this show illumi- into the experiences and thoughts of ordinary Saudis
nates the vast diversity of contemporary artistic prac- on matters such as urbanization, globalization, reli-
tice in Saudi Arabia and promotes dialogue among the gion and the impact of American popular culture on
17 exhibiting artists and US audiences. An alternative Saudi society. The exhibit features a variety of works
in diverse media by both established
and emerging artists. Epicenter X
is organized in collaboration with
the King Abdulaziz Center for World
Culture, known simply as Ithra, and
it is produced with support from
CULTURUNNERS. Arab American Na-
tional Museum, Dearborn, Michigan,
through October 14.
“Hennkah (Experience),” 2017, by

Mawadah Muhtasib. Laser-cut mir-
rored acrylic. Installation view. This
work was conceived and produced
ERIN KIRKLAND / ARAMCO SERVICES CO.
during Muhtasib’s residency at Majlis

Studio in New York. It features her
characteristic reversed Arabic type-
face, focusing on the beauty of the
strokes rather than on readability. The
mirrored finish offers each viewer a
unique perspective and interaction.
40 AramcoWorld
tion, greater numbers of officers, A Journey into the Great Unknown. isolation. Although ignored for a and flap, which are features as-
and eventually their families, were “Energy sparked by creativity is long time, exchanges within Africa sociated specifically with Islamic
stationed in the region. Many full of potential.” So begins Shahzia and outside of its borders began bindings. Islamic Arts Museum
became active patrons of the arts, Sikander’s account describing thousands of years ago, well before Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, through
giving rise to the so-called Compa- the sense of exploration and independence, colonization and December 31.
ny School of painting—or simply excitement sparked by her recent the arrival of the first Portuguese
Company painting—of the 18th and collaboration with the Pulitzer ships at the end of the 15th century.
COMING / SEPTEMBER
19th centuries. Responding to their Prize-winning playwright, novelist This is demonstrated in sculptures,
patrons’ European tastes, scientific and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar. Both gold and ivory pieces, paintings Arts of the East: Highlights of Islamic
interests and sense of discovery, Pakistani Americans, Sikander and other artworks that evoke the Art from the Bruschettini Collection.
Indian artists—some previously and Akhtar have incorporated routes by river, land and sea that The Bruschettini Collection is
trained in late-Mughal techniques their Muslim heritage into their contributed to the movement and world-renowned for its Islamic art.
of painting—evolved their styles to separate practices in ways that contact of peoples, materials and This special exhibition showcases
create large-scale images of India’s challenge mainstream perceptions artworks, from the fifth millennium a fascinating selection of 13th- to
flora, fauna, people and landscape. of American Muslim identity. The BCE to the present day. Musée du 17th-century carpets, textiles, poly-
While formal natural studies com- result of their original collaboration quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, chrome Iznik wares, paintings and
prise a major genre of Company is on view in the museum’s South through November 12. precious inlaid metalwork chosen
painting, other idioms, such as the Asia galleries. Entitled “Portrait of from the collection, revealing the
picturesque—which offered ro- the Artist,” the work, a suite of four enduring appeal of Islamic master-
CURRENT / DECEMBER
manticized views of landscape and etchings and a related colophon pieces. Handpicked by Allesandro
architecture—also flourished. The written by Akhtar, explores the Islamic Bookbinding showcases Bruschettini in conversation with Aga
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New theme of mi’raj—the mystical night more than 70 artifacts that compre- Khan Museum, this impressive array
York, through October 1. journey of Prophet Muhammad. hensively portray the beautiful ele- of works, each equally astonishing in
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, ments of bookbinding from around vibrancy and technical perfection, has
The Principle of Uncertainty features through October 29. the Islamic world. A variety of book- origins spanning the Islamic world,
works by artists who pose funda- bindings are shown both bound from China to Spain. Bruschettini’s
mental questions about the value and unbound; some bindings were ongoing love of seeking out exquisite
CURRENT / NOVEMBER
and meaning of art through the kept in wooden boxes, wrapped examples of such art represents the
process of reconfiguring the collec- L’Afrique des Routes (African in leather pieces; and others were epitome of the collecting spirit and
tive truth and personal memories Routes). Cradle of humanity and bound in codex form. The cover the essence of the collection. Aga
behind their works. These are artists supplier of labor power, gold and materials comprise mainly leather, Khan Museum, Toronto, September
gaining prominence worldwide: Leb- raw materials for other continents lacquer work and textiles, in 23 through January 21.
anese-born Walid Raad, Singapore’s for thousands of years, Africa has addition to other decorative media
Ho Tzu Nyen, Amsterdam-based art- a history that is part of humanity’s such as metal and precious gems.
vast international dynamics. This Most listings have further information
ist and filmmaker Zachary Formwalt, Some manuscripts on display also
available online and at aramcoworld.com.
and Korean artist Hayoun Kwon. exhibition presents a panorama come with additional housings (i.e., Readers are welcome to submit
In reprocessing material as well as of a continent at the crossroads box, pouch, slipcase). The exhibit information for possible inclusion
memories, they reveal the hidden of different worlds, a counter- demonstrates that the art of book- to [email protected],
sides of the uncertain world through current to received ideas. Even binding was not only concentrated subject line “E&E”.
which they pass. National Museum as the preconceptions persist, in refining the design of the covers
of Modern and Contemporary Art, the facts themselves are undeni- but also focused on other elements SEE OUR FULL LISTINGS
Seoul, through October 9. able: Africans have never lived in such as the doublure (inner cover) AT ARAMCOWORLD.COM
AramcoWorld is published bimonthly in print, web and tablet/mobile editions, and an email newsletter is published biweekly.
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S E P T E M B E R O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7

4 The Seventh Summit 10 The Music

Online CLASSROOM GUIDE 2 FIRSTLOOK Photograph by Kelvin Bown

We distribute AramcoWorld in print and online to increase cross-cultural understanding by

38 REVIEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS 40 EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

Considered one of the greatest achievements

stars.” clouds forever proved that

would plan, she came to antic-

hen she unzipped the ﬂap of her tent

hree weeks later, she says, her toes

achievement on social media.

Plain dress belies Tarek Yamani's

with multiple DJs and musicians. Each

From the mid-10th century

were translated, among them the Upanishads, the

The Elusive Measure of Longitude

With the 20-hectare production studio in the

assistants, grips, The studios, it

the Ouarzazate Film Commission. Since 2008 he has pulled

legendary Syrian direc- made feature ﬁlms as well

tor Moustapha Akkad, as screening of pre-produc-

rests heavily on the bottom tax rebate on foreign ﬁlm

15 directors to attend. Just digital facilities at Atlas and

provided prosperity, social cohesion and identity.

making Muharraq a more pleasant place in

LOWER LEFT: BAHRAIN MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION

The Pearling Path map, left, classifies

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“… Cairo is not a megacity,

Epicenter X: Saudi Contemporary Art

“Hennkah (Experience),” 2017, by

during Muhtasib’s residency at Majlis

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