Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:04:28.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

LASER SCANNING SHIHRAZAD’S BATHS: 1001 TALES OF ZANZIBAR NIGHTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2020

Laura Basell ,
Abdallah Khamis Ali ,
Ella Egberts ,
Behnam Firoozi-Nejad ,
Nicholas Mellor  and
Mark Horton
Laura Basell
Affiliation:
Laura Basell, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK. Email: [email protected]
Abdallah Khamis Ali
Affiliation:
Abdallah Khamis Ali, Department of Museums and Antiquities, Zanzibar National Museums, PO Box 4267, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Email: [email protected]
Ella Egberts
Affiliation:
Ella Egberts, Preconstruct Archaeology, Unit 54 Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 Endwell Road, Brockley, LondonSE4 2PD, UK. Email: [email protected]
Behnam Firoozi-Nejad
Affiliation:
Behnam Firoozi-Nejad, Department of Geography, Queen’s University, University Road, BelfastBT7 1NN, UK. Email: [email protected]
Nicholas Mellor
Affiliation:
Nicholas Mellor, LSN Limited, 17 St James’s Gardens, LondonW11 4RE, UK. Email: [email protected]
Mark Horton
Affiliation:
Mark Horton, Royal Agricultural University, Kemble Road, Stroud Road, Cirencester, GL7 6JS, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents the first archaeological survey of the ornate Kidichi baths on Zanzibar. The baths were built either for or by Shihrazad, a wife of Zanzibar’s nineteenth-century ruler Said bin Sultan (1806–56). Laser scanning the ornate plaster stucco clarified two inscriptions, the precise meaning of which had been lost. By combining archaeological survey results with historical research and a translation of the inscriptions, a new narrative is presented in which the main protagonist is, unusually, female. Her story raises a host of questions relating to heritage, gender, religion and politics in modern-day Africa and beyond.

Keywords

ZanzibarTerrestrial Laser ScanningSultanKidichiPersian BathsIndian OceanAfricaGCRF
Type
Paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 100 , September 2020 , pp. 340 - 373
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and The Society of Antiquaries of London 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdullahi, Y and Rashid Bin Embi, M 2013. ‘Evolution of Islamic geometric patterns’, Frontiers Architect Res, 2, 243–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alavijeh, A Z 2013. ‘A comparison between the significance of number 7 in Persian context and number 9 in Chinese context’, Proc Int Conf Info Social Sci (ISS) and Int Symp Market, Log and Bus (MLB) September 2426, Nagoya, Japan Google Scholar
Amanat, A 1997. Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian monarchy 1831–1896, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles Google Scholar
Amanat, A (ed) 2003. Crowning Anguish: Taj Al-Saltana – memoirs of a Persian princess from the harem to modernity, Mage Publishers, Washington DC Google Scholar
Anon 1922. ‘Sir John Kirk, GCMG, KCB, FRS’, J Roy African Soc, 21 (83), 247, online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/i228656 (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Anwar, E 2004. ‘Harem’, in Richard, C Martin (ed), Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, MacMillan Reference, USA Google Scholar
Arlene, M and Arthur, S 2015. ‘Muhammad Shah’s royal Persian tent: Holden textile gallery, gallery 234’. Cleveland Museum of Art, online, https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/muhammad-shahs-royal-persian-tent (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Ashkan, M and Ahmad, Y 2009. ‘Persian domes: history, morphology and typologies’, Archnet-IJAR, 3 (3), 98–115Google Scholar
Askew, K M 1999. ‘Female circles and male lines: gender dynamics along the Swahili coast’, Africa Today, 46 (3/4), 67–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, R 2006. ‘Say what you like: dress, identity and heritage in Zanzibar’, Int J Heritage Stud, 12 (5), 440–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, R 2008. ‘Scents of identity: fragrance as heritage in Zanzibar’, J Contemp African Stud, 26 (3), 295–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, R 2011. Re-presenting Heritage in Zanzibar and Madagascar, Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, Addis Ababa Google Scholar
Bouilly, E, Rillon, O and Cross, H 2016. ‘African women’s struggles in a gender perspective’, Rev African Polit Econ, 43 (149), 338–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrows, R 2012. ‘ABJAD designs store coded messages’, available online http://rogerburrowsimages.com/2012/06/abjad-designs/ (accessed 29 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Burton, R F 1872. Zanzibar: city, island and coast. Vol 1, Tinsley, London CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buyers, C 2013. ‘Brief history’, https://www.royalark.net/Tanzania/zanzibar.htm (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Buyers, C 2015. ‘The Qajar dynasty’, https://www.royalark.net/Persia/qajar15.htm (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Cadinot, D 2013. ‘The reconfiguration of gender relations in Syrian-American feminist discourse in the diasporic conditions of the late nineteenth century’, Clio, 37, https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh/413 (accessed 27 Jan 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creswell, K A C and Allen, J W 1989. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture, rev and suppl by James W Allen, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo Google Scholar
Daly Thompson, K 2011. ‘Zanzibari women’s discursive and sexual agency: violating gendered speech prohibitions through talk about supernatural sex’, Discourse Soc, 22 (1), 3–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehkordi, S A 2015. ‘A study on the significance of cypress, plantain and vine in Persian culture, art and literature’, Mediter J Social Sci, 6 (6), S6 Google Scholar
Destryana, R A, Young, D G, Woolley, C L, Huang, T-C, Wu, H-Y and Shih, W-L 2014. ‘Antioxidant and anti-inflammation activities of Ocotea, Copaiba and Blue Cypress essential oils in vitro and in vivo ’, J Am Oil Chem Soc, 91, 1531 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, J-G 2006. Emancipation Without Abolition in German East Africa c 1884–1914, James Currey, Oxford Google Scholar
Diba, L S 2001. ‘Gol o bolbol, rose and nightingale, a popular literary and decorative theme’, in Encyclopaedia Iranica xi (1), 52–57, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, updated 2012 online version at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gol-o-bolbol (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Duke, D 2012. Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, ‘Qajar Iran: Painting’, Collection Highlights, Shangri La: a center for Islamic arts and cultures, November 2012, online at https://www.shangrilahawaii.org/islamic-art-collection/search-the-collection?id=4794 (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Ekhtiar, M and Sardar, M 2000. ‘Nineteenth-century Iran: continuity and revivalism’, in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, updated 2004 online version at http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crir/hd_crir.htm (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Farahani, L M, Setayesh, M and Shokrollahi, L 2015. ‘Contextualising palimpsest of collective memory in an urban heritage site: case study of Chahar Bagh, Shiraz, Iran’, Int J Architect Res, 9 (1), 198–216Google Scholar
Farahani, L M, Motamed, B and Jamei, E 2016. ‘Persian gardens: meanings, symbolism and design’, Landscape Online, 46, 1–19 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3097/LO.201646; accessed 27 Jan 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farsi, A S 1986. Seyyid Said bin Sultan: joint-ruler of Oman and Zanzibar (1804–1856) translated by Shaaban Saleh Farsi, Lancers Books, New Delhi Google Scholar
Fromherz, A J 2018. Gulf in World History, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh Google Scholar
Ghazal, A N (ed) 2005. Frontier Geography and Boundless History. Islam and Arabs in East Africa: a fusion of identities, networks and encounters, MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies 5 (Autumn), online at https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/177977/MITEJMES_Vol_5_Fall2005.pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Ghobadian, V 2006. Climatic Analysis of the Iranian Traditional Buildings, 4th edn, Tehran University Publications, Tehran Google Scholar
Gruber, C J 2013. ‘“To not toil in lonely obsession”: modern Persian erotica in the Kinsey Institute’, in Leoni, F and Natif, M (eds), Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art, 209–236, Routledge, Abingdon Google Scholar
Hamilton, G 1957. Princess of Zinj, Hutchinson & Co Ltd, London Google Scholar
Hejazi, M M and Mehdizedeh Saradj, F 2014. Persian Architectural Heritage: conservation, WIT Press, Southampton, Boston Google Scholar
Horton, M 2017. ‘East Africa and Oman c 600–1856’, in The Ports of Oman, 255–79, George Olms Verlag, Hildesheim Google Scholar
Horton, M C and Clark, C M 1985. Archaeological Survey of Zanzibar 1984, circulated reportGoogle Scholar
Juma, A 2004. Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar: an archaeological study of early urbanism, Societas Archaeologica Upaliensis, Uppsala Google Scholar
Kamizi, A, Hassani, G and Jalali Jafari, B 2014. ‘A survey of the Tree of Life images in Safavid textile arts’, Int J Basic Sci Appl Res, 3 (7), 419–33Google Scholar
Keddie, N R 2006. Modern Iran, Roots and Results of Revolution, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn Google Scholar
King, R 2018. ‘In praise of outlaws’, Archaeol Dialog, 25 (2), 105–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, A J 1987. ‘Islamic Star patterns’, Muqarnas, 4, 182–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longair, S 2015. Cracks in the Dome: fractured histories of empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897–1964, Routledge, London and New York Google Scholar
Lyne, R N 1905. Zanzibar in Contemporary Times, Darf Publishers Ltd, London Google Scholar
Matthee, R 2009. The Pursuit of Pleasure Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History: 1500–1900, Princetown University Press, Princeton and Oxford Google Scholar
Matthee, R 2014. ‘Alcohol in the Islamic Middle East’, Past and Present, Suppl 9, 100–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDow, T F 2018. Buying Time: debt and mobility in the western Indian Ocean, Ohio University Press, Athens Google Scholar
Miles, S B M 1919. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, Harrison and Sons Google Scholar
Montague, M W 1790. Letters of the right honourable Lady M----y W----y M----e; written during her travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa to persons of distinction, men of letters, &c. in different parts of Europe which contain, among other curious relations, accounts of the policy and manners of the Turks. Drawn from sources that have been inaccessible to other travellers, Thomas Martin, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nashat, G 2004. ‘Marriage in the Qajar period’, in Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic, 37–62, University of Illinois Press, Champaign Google Scholar
Nicolini, B 2004. Makran, Oman, and Zanzibar: three-terminal cultural corridor in the western Indian Ocean (1799–1856), Brill, Leiden Google Scholar
Nicolini, B 2013. ‘Re-reading the role of Oman within its international trade relations: from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries’, in Regionalizing Oman: political, economic and social dynamics, Ch 9, Springer, Dordrecht Google Scholar
Peterson, A 1996. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, Routledge, London and New York Google Scholar
Pouwels, R L 2002a. ‘Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean to 1800: reviewing relations in historical perspective’, Int J African Hist Stud, 35 (2/3), 385–425CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pouwels, R L 2002b. Horn and Crescent: cultural change and traditional Islam on the East African coast, 800–1900, African Stud 53, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Prendergast, M E, Rouby, H, Punnwong, P, Marchant, R, Crowthe, R A, Kourampas, N, et al 2016. ‘Continental island formation and the archaeology of defaunation on Zanzibar, Eastern Africa’, PLoS ONE, 11 (2), e0149565 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rajabi, K M 1959. ‘The Hamamni Baths. To the District Commissioner Urban from the office of the town Mudir, Zanzibar, 30th January 1959’, in Zanzibar Archives, Ancient monuments, File A42Google Scholar
Rapoport, Y and Savage-Smith, E (eds and trans) 2014. Kitāb Gharāʾib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn. An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe: the book of curiosities, Islamic Philos Theol Sci Texts and Stud 87, Brill, Leiden and Boston Google Scholar
Reda Bhacker, M 1991. ‘Family strife and foreign intervention: causes in the separation of Zanzibar from Oman: a reappraisal’, Bull School Orient African Stud Uni Lond, 54 (2), 269–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romero, P W 2012. ‘Seyyid Said bin Sultan BuSaid of Oman and Zanzibar: women in the life of this Arab patriarch’, Brit J Middle Eastern Stud, 39 (3), 373–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruete, E 2000. Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar (author: Sayyida, Princess of Zanzibar and Oman; orig pub 1888), Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, New Jersey Google Scholar
Saremi, H and Gorji, R 2015. ‘Bathroom physical features of Iran in Qajar era’, Int J Eng Sci Invent, 4 (8), 51–60Google Scholar
Scarce, J M 1986. ‘Art in Iran: x.1 art and architecture of the Qajar period’, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, ii (1), 52–7, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, updated 2011 online version at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/art-in-iran-v-qajar-1-general (accessed 27 Jan 2020)Google Scholar
Scheiwiller, S G 2017. Liminalities of Gender and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Iranian Photography: desirous bodies, Routledge, New York Google Scholar
Schmidt, P 2013. ‘Oral history, oral traditions and archaeology: the application of structural analyses’, in Mitchell, P and Lane, P J (eds), The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology, 37–48, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Shahidi, M S, Bemanian, M R, Almasifar, N and Okhovat, H 2010. ‘A study of cultural and environmental basics of formal elements of Persian gardens (before and after Islam)’, Asian Cult Hist, 2 (2), 133–47Google Scholar
Shelswell-White, G H 1949. A Guide to Zanzibar, Government Printer, Zanzibar Google Scholar
Sheriff, A 1987. Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar: integration of an East African commercial empire into the world economy, 1770–1873, Eastern African Studies, Ohio University Press, Athens Google Scholar
Sheriff, A 2001. ‘Race and class in the politics of Zanzibar’, Africa Spect, 36 (3), 310–18Google Scholar
Sheriff, A 2014. ‘Suria: concubine or secondary slave wife? The case of Zanzibar in the nineteenth century’, in Sex, Power and Slavery, Ch 4, Ohio University Press, Athens Google Scholar
Shipton, C, Crowther, A, Prendergast, M E, Kourampas, N, Horton, M, Douka, K, et al 2016. ‘Reinvestigation of Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar, reveals Later Stone Age coastal habitation, early Holocene abandonment, and Iron Age reoccupation’, Azania, 51 (2), 197–233CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, J 1995. ‘Ties that bind: women and family in eighteenth and nineteenth century nablus’, in Women in Middle Eastern History: shifting boundaries in sex and gender, 233–53, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn Google Scholar
Weneress, H D 2003. The Continuum Encyclopaedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, London and New York Google Scholar
Wood, M, Panighello, S, Orsega, E F, Robertshaw, P, van Elteren, J T, Crowther, A, et al 2017. ‘Zanzibar and Indian Ocean trade in the first millennium CE: the glass bead evidence’, Archaeol Anthropol Sci, 9 (5), 879–901CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynne-Jones, S and Mapunda, B B B 2008. ‘“This is what pots look like here”: ceramics, tradition and consumption on Mafia Island, Tanzania’, Azania: J Brit Inst Eastern Africa, 43 (1), 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Basell et al. supplementary material

Basell et al. supplementary material

Download Basell et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 225.5 KB