Category Archives: Orientalism

A Geography Lesson from 1879: #4: Arabia and Turkey

Anthropology/Sociology, Lithographs, Oman, Orientalism, Ottoman Empire, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen


In a previous post I continued a thread from an 1879 school geography text. At the time much of the Arab World was under the control, nominal at times, of the Ottoman Empire. This text divided the Ottoman holdings into those in Asia, discussed below, and those in Europe, to be given in a separate post.

1. Arabia is a great plateau, abounding in deserts, and possessing but few fertile districts, except along the coast. Its area is about 1,000,000 square miles.
2. The Climate is the dryest in the world, rain seldom falling anywhere, and the heat being intense, especially in the lowlands and deserts.
Arabia has been divided into three parts: – ARABIA FELIX, happy or fertile; ARABIA PETRAE, stony; and ARABIA DESERTA, desert. The fist of these divisions borders on the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea; the second lies on the northeastern shore of the Red Sea; and the third includes all of the central portion of the country. The cultivated tracts are generally near the mountains, from which rivers descend in the rainy season and thus enrich the soil. Numerous oases re found in the desert regions. Continue reading A Geography Lesson from 1879: #4: Arabia and Turkey →

A Geography Lesson from 1879: #3: Racial as Facial

Anthropology/Sociology, Lithographs, Orientalism


In a previous post I provided an account of the five different states of civilization from an 1879 geography text once owned by my great, great aunt. Apparently the author was enamored with the number “five,” since he also divided the human race into five distinct races. Let’s face it, race at the time was a visual matter of face (and hair) and notice in the image above who was in the middle. Here is the breakdown:

“1. The people inhabiting the different regions of the globe have been divided into five varieties, or races; namely, the Caucasian, or European; the Mongolian, or Asiatic; the Ethiopian, or African; the Malay; and the American or Indian.
2. The Caucasians are distinguished for their light complexion and straight hair. They inhabit nearly the whole of Europe, southwestern Asia, and a large part of America. The comprise the most enlightened and civilized nations of the world. Continue reading A Geography Lesson from 1879: #3: Racial as Facial →

Hosni Mubarak and Don Giovanni

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Music and Dance, Orientalism, YouTube Watch


Eighteen days and no longer counting. On this day of farewell, although the wellness wished was not very strong for Hosni Mubarak among the thousands upon thousands of protesters gathered today in Tahrir Square, the Pharaoh left Thebes for good. There have been so many questions swirling in central Cairo and streaming into households worldwide that none of the thousands of pundit-pandered answers were able to satisfy. Never has a revolution been witnessed by so many people; never have so many questions been asked with so little ability to predict precisely what would happen. Will he leave? Or perhaps, more likely, when will he leave? Or, perhaps, has he already exited, stage right? Now we know, Mubarak has resigned.

Yesterday there was a brief spell of hope that Mubarak had finally accepted his fate. I attended an Egyptian event in Manhattan about as far away from the protests in Tahrir Square as can be imagined. This was a performance of Mozart arias translated into Arabic, some into Egyptian dialect. A friend arrived full of relief, having heard the earlier news that Mubarak was planning to leave. The old man’s long and self-serving speech seemed to squelch any hopes for that; the sighs and groans of the unified Egyptian spirit of protest could then be heard around the world. During intermission a long-time Egypt watcher told me that Mubarak will not leave and violence was sure to start up again. Thankfully, he was wrong. Continue reading Hosni Mubarak and Don Giovanni →

Mozart in Arabic

Egypt, Music and Dance, Orientalism


Ashraf Sewailam as Sarastro in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria, Egypt), Jan. 2011

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center is presenting a performance of scenes and arias from Mozart operas sung in Arabic by Mona Rafla, Cynthia Samaha-Melki, Ashraf Sewailam, and Raouf Zaidan, with pianist Mohamed Shams. Performances are Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 6 pm and Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm. For details see the website.

Ozymandias Redux

"Arab Spring", Archaeology and Antiquities, Egypt, Orientalism, Poetry


One of the great Victorian Orientalist poems, Ozymandias, was penned by Percy Bysshe Shelley almost two centuries ago in 1818. Substitute the name “Hosni Mubarakias” and experience the déjà vu that is Egypt, and indeed the entire world.

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The memories of past kings and pharaohs are not sacred, as looters were able to enter the Cairo Museum and damage some of the objects there. Looting is as old as the pyramids. Such was the fate with most of the pharaohs’ well concealed (and conceited) wealth for the afterlife. Now the objects preserved in the museum are also in danger.

Egypt will survive the fall of its latest pharaoh, but right now the sneer of cold command is once again sinking in the sand.

A Geography Lesson from 1879: #2: An Enlightened National View of the Others

Anthropology/Sociology, Lithographs, Orientalism


I recently started a thread on a school geography book from 1879. At that time the idea of “civilization” was fixed in a hierarchy. According to Lesson XXI (States of Civilization), there were degrees for separating out the inhabitants of the earth. Here is the sequence, with the student no doubt informed in the classroom that the United States was the most enlightened:

1. Nations, with regard to the degree of their civilization, are divided into five general classes: Savage, Barbarous, Half-civilized, Civilized, and Enlightened Nations.
2. Savages dwell in tribes; they live in caves, dens, or huts, and are chiefly occupied in hunting, fishing, or war.
3. Barbarous Nations live in larger communities than savages, practice some rude arts, attend to the rearing of flocks and herds, and in some cases, till the soil.
4. Half-civilized Nations have organized governments and dwell in cities, occupy themselves in agriculture and mechanic arts, but are without education, refinement, or morality.
5. Civilized Nations are such as have made considerable progress in knowledge and morality, have good governments and generally wise laws.
6. Enlightened Nations are such as hold the highest rank in intelligence, scientific progress, and moral, religious, and social culture.

Excerpt from: Colton’s Common School Geography (New York: Sheldon and Company, 1879), 17.

to be continued

A Geography Lesson from 1879: #1: The Earth is not a Plain

Anthropology/Sociology, Lithographs, Orientalism


Once upon a time Geography went right along with the three r’s in the school curriculum. I have a copy of the geography text my great, great Aunt Ida used. This was Colton’s Common School Geography illustrated by numerous engravings and twenty-two study maps, drawn expressly for this work, and specially adapted to the wants of the class-room, to which are added two full-paged railroad maps, showing the chief routes of travel, and a complete series of twelve commercial and reference maps of the United States. It was published by Sheldon and Company, located at the time on 8 Murray Street in New York, in 1879.

In 1879, when my discipline of Anthropology was still in academic diapers, Geography was defined as “that branch of science which describes the surface of the earth, the divisions and inhabitants” (p. 3). Apparently back then it was still important to show why we knew the earth was not flat. As the text explains:

We know that the earth is not a plain, because 1. Navigators have sailed around it; 2. The upper portions of objects at a distance, as a ship at sea, are seen before any other part; 3. The shadow of the earth, as seen at the time of an eclipse of the moon, has always the form of a circle or a segment of a circle. (p. 3)

In discussing land divisions some 20 different kinds are listed, including a desert (“a tract of land nearly or quite barren”) and an oasis (“a fertile spot in the desert”) with both of these rating an illustration as shown above.

to be continued

Belly Dance a century ago

Music and Dance, Orientalism, YouTube Watch


Little Egypt

There are several fascinating videos uploaded on Youtube of belly dance more than a century ago. One is a very short clip of 14 seconds from 1895 of a dancer named “Princess Ali.” Another is an early Edison film of Ella Lola, made in 1898, combined on Youtube with a 1900 track of Turkish music. The video lasts over three minutes. Ella was in costume, but another early video from 1904 shows “Princess Rajah” in the dress of the day dancing away her hoochie koochie as a circus act complete with chair. The queen of the art, at least in hindsight, was “Little Egypt,” who is also to be found in a clip from a movie about striptease. Although not an original film video, there is an interesting Youtube video with vintage “Orientalist” commentary about Egyptian and other North African belly dance at the 1889 L’Exposition Universelle, especially along “La Rue du Caire.”

For an overview of belly dance, see the excellent article by Najwa Adra.