Politics, aesthetics and the Ottoman Cemetery

Abstract

This article discusses the Ottoman Muslim Cemetery in Marsa: its origins and how the country’s political and social history effects the site’s heritage and conservation. Designed by the well known Maltese architect and civil engineer, Emanuele Luigi Galizia the site was completed before 1876. It was commissioned by (then) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdülaziz I, as a final resting place for members of the Turkish military under the permission of the British colonial authorities inhabiting the island. A big part of the discussion is this ‘cross-cultural’ collaboration itself. Referencing the work of intellectuals and industry professionals (i.e: Professor Conrad Thake, Dr. Mark Sagona, Dr. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci) Petroni highlights the kind of political and ideological complications associated to the site today. How (socio-political) memory, identity and healing could compromise, overlook and underestimate the cultural and artistic significance of this masterpiece. Instead, readers are encouraged to widen the very definition of heritage itself. The site as, i.e: Ottoman heritage & representation, history of Maltese architecture, Europe’s search for the exotic during the nineteenth century, visual cultures within the Islamic world, etc. Petroni also quotes the seminal book ‘Orientalism’ by Edward W. Said (1978). A selection of photographs accompany the text.