Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Map of the Gulf
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- 1 Introduction: World History in the Gulf as a Gulf in World History
- Part I Gulf Cosmopolitanism
- Part II The Gulf and the Indian Ocean
- Part III East Africans in the Khalij and the Khalij in East Africa
- Part IV Diversity and Change: Between Sky, Land and Sea
- Part V Recent Gulf Archaeology
- Part VI Heritage and Memory in the Gulf
- Index
16 - Doha’s Msheireb Heritage House Museums: A Discussion of Memory, History and the Indian Ocean World
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Map of the Gulf
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- 1 Introduction: World History in the Gulf as a Gulf in World History
- Part I Gulf Cosmopolitanism
- Part II The Gulf and the Indian Ocean
- Part III East Africans in the Khalij and the Khalij in East Africa
- Part IV Diversity and Change: Between Sky, Land and Sea
- Part V Recent Gulf Archaeology
- Part VI Heritage and Memory in the Gulf
- Index
Summary
Introduction
None of the Arabian Peninsula states’ national museums tackle the role or even the existence of minorities and other ethnic and religious groups … I am skeptical of claims that highlighting the ‘other’ will exaggerate differences and put them under the microscope. On the contrary, acknowledging and celebrating their roles and lives in a respectful manner would reinforce social cohesion and understanding. (Al Qassemi 2015, online)
The Msheireb Downtown Doha project, located on a 35-hectare site in the centre of Doha near the corniche, will eventually encompass commercial, residential, cultural and government buildings, and has an agenda, according to the project website, to ‘unite the Doha of yesterday with the vision of Doha tomorrow, restoring old ways of life, the traditional sense of community, and a strong sense of culture and heritage’. Incorporated into the redevelopment project are four museums housed in reconstructed or renovated houses dating to the first half of the twentieth century which opened to the public in September 2015. These museums are: Bin Jelmood House: The International Slavery Museum, focusing on Indian Ocean World slavery and contemporary human trafficking; Mohammed Bin Jassim (MBJ) House, presenting the urban history of the Msheireb area; Company House, which addresses the early oil industry in Qatar; and Radwani House, displaying the development of the house through archaeology, and traditional lifestyles in dioramic rooms. These museums have opened in advance of the new National Museum of Qatar (due to open in spring 2019), and other planned national museums such as the Oman National Museum (opened in 2016) and Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi (the project is currently paused), giving a foretaste of the contemporary construction of national histories in the region, and an introduction to the nature of the different Gulf states’ conceptualisations of their relationship to the outside world, in particular their shifting relationship with the Indian Ocean World (Plate 19).
In this discussion, the Msheireb Heritage House Museums are used as a case study to examine the contemporary (re)construction of these relationships, considering the exclusions from the historical narratives of large elements of the Arabian Peninsula states’ diverse populations and historical foreign interactions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Gulf in World HistoryArabian, Persian and Global Connections, pp. 313 - 332Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2018