Cairo in the 19th Century
An 'Authentic' City for a Modern World: A Symposium

 

Friday, October 29, 1999
The Seaborg Room, The Faculty Club
U.C Berkeley

 

During the nineteenth century, Cairo witnessed one of its most dramatic periods of transformation. Architects, art historians, conservationists, literary writers, planners and travelers all contributed to the project of making the city "medieval" once again. Members of the ongoing Misr Research Group will present their latest research on the subject.

 

Registration 8:30am

 

Session One
9:00am to 10:30am
Chair: Nezar AlSayyad, Architecture and Planning, University of California, Berkeley

• Opening Remarks
  Nezar AlSayyad, Architecture and Planning, University of California, Berkeley



• Rumours of Cairo: the City of the Arabian Nights and Paris-on-the-Nile"
  Derek Gregory, Geography, University of British Columbia



• No Art, No History
  Donald Preziosi, Art History, University of California, Los Angeles


Discussant: Stefania Pandolfo, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

 

 

Session Two
10:50am to 12:10pm
Chair: Laurence Michalak, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley

• The Time and Space of Medieval Cairo"
  Irene A. Bierman, Art History and Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles



• On the Eve of Modernity: A Social History of mid-19th-century Cairo
  Khaled Fahmy, Near Eastern Studies, New York University
  
  Discussant: Beshara Doumani, History, University of California, Berkeley

Session Three
1:20pm to 2:40pm
Chair: Timothy Mitchell, Politics and Near Eastern Studies, New York University

• Citizen Maqrizi: A Forefather of the Modern Narratives on Cairo
  Nasser Rabat, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology



• Ali Mubarak's Egypt: Between the Testimony of Alamuddin and the Imaginary of the Khitat
  Nezar AlSayyad, Architecture and Planning, University of California, Berkeley

Discussant: Michael Cooperson, Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Session Four
3:00pm to 4:20pm
Chair: Irene A. Bierman, Art History and Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

• Re-birth of 'Historical Cairo' and Birth of 'Heliopolis'
  Nairy Hampikian, Bab Zuwayla Conservation Project, Cairo



• Making Cairo Medieval
  Paula Sanders, History, Rice University

Discussant: Aly Gabr, Architecture, Cairo University

Session Five
4:40pm to 5:30pm

• Concluding Comments and Final Discussion
  Timothy Mitchell, Politics and Near Eastern Studies, New York University
  Dell Upton, Architecture, University of California, Berkeley

 

Open Reception
5:30pm to 7:00pm
Women's Faculty Club Lounge

 

 

For further information and a full schedule of the symposium, contact the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (tel: 510.642.8208), or visit our website at http://cmes.berkeley.edu