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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2021

Islamic Heritage in Qatar: Building a Myth

Résumé

The concept of heritage in Qatar came into being in the 1970s, following the country's independence in 1971 and the foundation of a nation-state. This desire to create a heritage of its own led to the opening, of a National Museum in 1975: a place of national identity. In the 1990s, the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, instituted the development of a cultural programme in the country in order to establish Qatar as a major international cultural centre. He wanted to make this small country a state with universal reach. The creation of a museum dedicated solely to Islamic art in 2008 is part of this process. Beyond a national heritage, the Emir intended to build a universal heritage not only for national citizens, but for citizens of the region, of the Muslim world and more broadly for Westerners. Like France after the Revolution, through the creation of a museum with a universal vocation, Qatar intends to inscribe its identity in a history broader than its own and in a more distant and glorious past, that of the Islamic and Arab world. Islamic art, by its very definition, is not an art specific to a country but a universal art, a global art, the one produced in countries under Muslim domination between the 7th and 19th century. Studying the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha allows us to understand how the Qatari nation positions itself between the local and the global: on the one hand in relation to the Gulf region (local), and on the other hand in relation to the world (global). The creation of this Islamic heritage is not directed at Qataris, who already have their own museum, the National Museum, but for a universal audience. This is reflected in the small number of Qatari visitors in the museum, unlike the National Museum. The Qataris do not identify themselves with the museum, probably due to the absence of objects from the region of Qatar. This reinforces its perception as an attachment to an Islamic past through the creation of an Islamic heritage. The study of the museum – its architecture, its collections, its museography, its management – reflects this desire of the state to manufacture an Islamic past in order to establish its history in a larger history and a more glorious past, and also to be seen as a cultural leader in the Arab and Western world.
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Dates et versions

halshs-03464333, version 1 (03-12-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-03464333 , version 1

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Constance Jame. Islamic Heritage in Qatar: Building a Myth. Manufacturing the Past, European University, Nov 2021, Saint Pétersbourg, Russia. ⟨halshs-03464333⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 05/05/2024
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