Wednesday, June 17, 2020
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
On Zoom
“I voyage across the seas and know not if I will return”—Cultural Memories of the Red Sea
By Dr. Dionisius A. Agius, Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Al-Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter and Distinguished Professor affiliated to King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah.
Abstract
This seminar presents and interprets ethnographic data collected among the African and Arabian communities of the Red Sea over the past one hundred years. The dhow is at the center of this discourse, a unique blending of two different ecologies, the land and sea. The research captures the cultural memories of the coastal communities who were engaged with the seasonal India trade, intersected with the arrival of the pilgrim-trade ships to Arabia; the pearling days on both the African and Arabian shores; and the fishing seasons. With the introduction of the steamer and the discovery of oil, Red Sea dhow activity declined. This presentation will explore how the dhow trade survived in spite of its downturn, and how the fishing dhow continues to be part of the maritime landscape of the region, with particular attention to the ways in which maritime communities have perceived their engagement with the physical and human geography of Arabia and the Indian Ocean world.
About the speaker
Dr. Dionisius A. Agius is a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Al-Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter. He is also Distinguished Professor affiliated to King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. Educated in his undergraduate years at the University of St-Joseph, Beirut, he progressed for a master’s and doctoral degree at the University of Toronto. An Arabist, ethnographer, cultural historian and philologist, his focus is on the maritime landscapes, the sea peoples and their material culture of the Indian Ocean. He is author of many books, the latest one being: The Life of the Red Sea Dhow: A Cultural History of Seaborne Exploration in the Islamic World (IB Tauris 2019).
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The Cultural Heritage Event Series is organized by Dr. Laurence Hapiot, Archaeological Research and Cultural Outreach, Academic Affairs.
