Mamluk Minarets in Modern Egypt: Tracing Restoration Decisions and Interventions
This essay discusses the work of the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe to restore, and in some cases transform and reinvent Mamluk minarets from the 1880s to 1950s. Three types of interventions are particularly considered: 1. the dismantling and reconstructing of upper pavilions at...
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| Publicado no: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/anisl, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado em: |
Annales islamologiques
2017
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| Assuntos: | |
| Acesso em linha: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Resumo: | This essay discusses the work of the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe to restore, and in some cases transform and reinvent Mamluk minarets from the 1880s to 1950s. Three types of interventions are particularly considered: 1. the dismantling and reconstructing of upper pavilions at risk of collapse; 2. the construction of upper pavilions that were missing when the Comité started to work on the minarets; and 3. the removal of Ottoman pencil-like caps from Mamluk minarets and the reconstruction of a typical Mamluk pavilion. Relevant examples in each type are examined using historical sources and on site observations. The research leads to conclude that although the Comité’s decisions might have been influenced by ideology, as often suggested in the literature, technical motives and safety issues also played an important part in orienting interventions. The common notion that the Comité “medievalized” Cairo for the sake of tourists only imperfectly captures the diversity and complexity of the principles and methodologies of restoration and conservation followed by the Comité. |
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