Abstract
This chapter discusses community involvement in preserving the cultural heritage represented in Sharjah’s re-opened Sharjah Fort (Al Hisn) Museum through their participation in oral history. H. H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah led these efforts by directing the reconstruction of the Fort and gifting the building to the people by making it a public museum. The Ruler’s numerous historical publications, based on personal knowledge of his history and place reinforced by research, form the basis of the museum content. His passion for preserving culture has inspired the community to share information and stories with the Sharjah Museums Authority’s research team, and their contributions relating to Sharjah’s history and culture have been complementary to H.H.’s scholarly work. Oral history research at Al Hisn has proved not only to be an important tool for enriching museum displays, but also crucial in facilitating community engagement. This is discussed here through the framework of a new project, ‘Sharjah Lives’, designed to promote engagement with visitors by capturing their stories through touch screens. Other interventions – activities that involve visitors with the museum’s history and heritage, and using the museum as a site to celebrate and explore both national and Sharjah-specific cultural events – add to an understanding of the museum’s maturing interface with communities and its position at the vanguard of participatory museum practice in the UAE.
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Notes
- 1.
Launched in 1995, the Arab Capital of Culture is a UNESCO initiative, implemented in association with ALESCO (the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization). It was designed to celebrate and endorse Arab cultures, fostering international cooperation and promoting the cultural aspects of development (Stevenson, 2014).
- 2.
ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) also has a Cultural Capital initiative, which covers three geographical constituencies – the Arab, Asian and African regions.
- 3.
The name ‘Trucial States’, from which the United Emirates was formed in 1971, comes from various peace treaties or truces signed between the British and local Sheikhs, in particular the 1853 Treaty of Perpetual Maritime Peace.
- 4.
These challenges – around content variation (recording vs. transcript), language barriers, confidentiality, information verification, copyright and archiving – are outlined later in the chapter.
- 5.
The Sharjah Documentation and Archives Authority, earlier the Sharjah Centre for Documentation and Research, was established by resolution no. (4) of 2010 and issued by H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah.
- 6.
Al Rawi (Narrator/Heritage Bearer) Day is an annual event established in 2001 by the Heritage Department of the Culture Directorate in Sharjah. With the establishment of the Sharjah Heritage Institute, it has since grown to encompass a symposium and other related activities. The event aims to celebrate and encourage the art of story-telling and ensure elders from the community have a platform to activate their cultural and social role as storytellers and, in effect, oral historians.
- 7.
The Al Drour is one of the Arabian Gulf’s oldest calendars, believed to have been used by the legendary Arab navigator Ahmad Ibn Majid some 500 years ago. It is a 365-day calendar, divided by the stars and the slight movement perceived in their heliacal rising and setting each day. It has four main sections representing the seasons, three of which have 100 days and one, 60 days. The remaining five ‘stolen’ days are known as Al Khams Al Masrouqa.
- 8.
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long-haul airline, operating between 1924–1939 and primarily serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East. It was a forerunner of British Airways.
- 9.
Hag Al Lailah, or For this Night, is an annual Emirati traditional celebration in the middle of Sha’aban, the eighth month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, during which children collect sweets and treats from neighbours and family.
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Ataya, M., Page, H. (2022). Heritage and Community Involvement: The Case of Sharjah Fort (Al Hisn) Museum. In: Badran, A., Abu-Khafajah, S., Elliott, S. (eds) Community Heritage in the Arab Region. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07446-2_7
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