Envisioning the Orient: The New Muslim Cemetery in Malta
This paper analyzes a project for a new Muslim cemetery in Malta that was realized in 1873–74. It investigates the process of commissioning and implementing the project through an intricate set of relationships between the colonial authorities in Malta, then a British island-colony in the Mediterran...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2016
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| In: |
Muqarnas
Year: 2016, Volume: 33, Issue: 1, Pages: 221-251 |
| Further subjects: | B
Muslim cemetery
Malta
neo-Ottoman architecture
orientalism
Sultan Abdülaziz I
Emanuele Luigi Galizia
British colonialism
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes a project for a new Muslim cemetery in Malta that was realized in 1873–74. It investigates the process of commissioning and implementing the project through an intricate set of relationships between the colonial authorities in Malta, then a British island-colony in the Mediterranean, and the Ottoman, Tunisian, and Moroccan authorities. It considers the key roles played by the various institutional agents and protagonists involved in conceptualizing and executing the project, from the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz I, acting through his political and cultural interlocutor, the Ottoman consul Naoum Duhany, to Emanuele Luigi Galizia, the Maltese architect who designed the cemetery, and the British colonial authorities who permitted its construction. This paper also explores issues relating to the forms of neo-Ottoman architectural representation during the late nineteenth century, as it was actively promoted within a Western European cultural context and, in this case, on the peripheral edge, far removed from the traditional cosmopolitan urban centers. The Ottoman patronage of an overtly exotic and Orientalist building complex, “exported” to a British colonial outpost in the Mediterranean, gives rise to a series of political and ideological issues. This case study serves to provide broader and revisionary insights into the current discourse on Orientalism, not as a closed and binary system but rather as an open-ended and flexible form of artistic representation.
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| ISSN: | 2211-8993 |
| Contains: | In: Muqarnas
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/22118993_03301P009 |