Dismantling History: Space, Identity, and Ğannāt al-Baqīʻ

The cemetery Ğannat al-Baqi’ in Madīna has been one of the most important locations in the religious geography of Muslims. It has also been the site of an ongoing struggle for competing interpretations, especially between the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance on one side, and Shiʻa and Sunni Muslims on the other. The cemetery, which hosts a number of burial sites of paramount importance for Muslims, has been destroyed twice by the Saudi government in the past. This paper argues that the reason for this behavior is a spatial one; and Islam indeed should be read as a spatial religion. This reading of Islam clarifies the connection between space, identity, and memory. Adapting theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari leads to observe three overlapping processes of spatialization, despatialization and respatialization in Baqīʻ. Spatialization indicates the creation and expansion of the cemetery, along with centuries of shrine building and their renovations. Despatialization points to the repeated destruction of those shrines; and respatialization is visible most clearly in the strict control of the spatial arrangements and practices at the cemetery by the Saudi-Wahhabi authorities today. The Saudi-Wahhabi did not remove signs and symbols solely to evacuate the cemetery of its traditional meaning, but to implant a new, alternative meaning onto Baqiʻ.

کلیدواژه ها:

Ğannāt al-Baqīʻ ، Wahhabismus ، Räumlichkeit