Introduction
“Choices made regarding Ani’s preservation cannot escape political implications, and contests over the site’s meaning should be acknowledged rather than ignored and engaged in rather than silenced. It is possible that once admitted, the difficult issues at Ani can become opportunities for creative solutions.” Heghnar Watenpaugh speaks these words about the Turkish-Armenian archeological site of Ani. She believes that Ani’s preservation bodes well for dialogue, reflection and maybe even reconciliation. Her work relates to physical conservation, but still underlines the importance of preserving memories. This sort of preservation in the Arab world may also be likened to the rich autobiographies of Anbara Salam Khalidi and Sasson Somekh. Somekh, a renowned literary critic and Arab literature scholar, in his autobiography, Baghdad, Yesterday provides a look into his early life. He provides a masterful portrayal of his upbringing in the French-styled education and English sense of developing an identity. Similarly, Anbara Salam Khalidi, in Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist, writes how she moves throughout her life trying to uphold the high ethical ideals of independence of spirit and generosity in the highly patriarchal Lebanese and Palestine societies. This paper examines the difficult issues that the authors and participants of these autobiographies face and how these difficulties can be acknowledged and leveraged.
First, autobiographers and the participants, as well as authors of documents in the Middle East, have always faced the very serious problem of a curtailed right of expression. Undoubtedly, Somekh’s Baghdad Yesterday and Khalidi’s Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist are no different. Despite being brave accounts of oppressed freedoms to some extent, these autobiographies still fail to capture the full extent of government oppression on the citizen’s rights. These texts were written at a time when media freedom was significantly curtailed. According to Akram Fouad Khater, rights have been curbed. In a highly politically-charged atmosphere where media freedoms and the right of expression are not present, autobiographers had to operate in a manner that did not make their work to be seen as opposed to the administration. Being a Jew in an Arab country did not help in this regard. As such, the authors have hidden some of the details that could enrich their autobiographies not as a failure, but as a challenge. Similarly, participants in these biographies would be wary of their security and not readily present themselves as witnesses to information regarding the Israeli-Arab politics of the time.
Loss of important documents was a considerable hindrance for the authors of these autobiographies. For example, Salam Khalidi writes in the introduction to her 1978 version that a considerable number of papers that may have provided more detailed information got lost of were destroyed. Some of them were destroyed by her family members as they sought to keep the Ottoman authorities away from them. Her family members did not want the Ottoman authorities to incriminate her father who was an Arab nationalist. Also, the French Mandate was cracking down on any political resistance and could use such documents to incriminate the Khalidi family. Some of the documents also got lost when the Khalidi family had to run away from Jerusalem in 1948.
Another challenge that autobiographers and authors face is attempting to remain objective in the face of obvious cultural influences. Every primary source provides a given perspective. The author attempts to provide their point of view regarding a certain subject. Even when the reader may think that a source has adopted an objective tone, the author is not always objective. All primary sources have an element of bias, but this fact does not question their value in reconstructing the past. For example, Somekh’s Baghdad Yesterday is his formation that is influenced heavily by a French sense of education. His story may be told differently by a person with a different perspective and cultural background.
The issues faced by autobiographers and authors of primary sources while composing their works should be acknowledged and leveraged. For example, Khater, in his book, notes that our awareness of some of the biases that exist in writers may force us to use their primary sources “advisedly and carefully.” Readers must always acknowledge that authors work under the influence of overbearing and unavoidable cultural assumptions. It is worth noting that a primary source only gives a snapshot at best of a larger historical context. Any single documents should not be overly relied upon or isolated from its context.
Conclusion
Autobiographers, authors and participants of primary sources often face different issues while preparing their works. The works of Middle Eastern autobiographers such as Anbara Salam Khalidi and Sasson Somekh. Somekh is no different in this regard. First, their works have been limited to some extent by the curtailing of the freedom of expression in their countries. Another issue is the loss of important documents that may have provided critical information to enrich their work. Khalidi lost important information that would have enriched her autobiography as she sought to evade the Ottoman administration in 1948. Another issue that autobiographers have to contend with is the attempt to be objective. Their perspectives are shaped by cultural biases that influence their work. These challenges should be acknowledged and leveraged in research. Researchers should use primary sources taking into account the larger context of their work.
Bibliography
Khater, Akram Fouad. Sources In The History Of The Modern Middle East. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Khālidī, ʻAnbarah Salām, Marina Warner, and Tarif Khalidi. Memoirs Of An Early Arab Feminist. London: Pluto Press, 2013.
Watenpaugh, Heghnar Zeitlian. "Preserving The Medieval City Of Ani." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 73, no. 4 (2014): 528-555.
