To the Nation, Belong the Archives: The Search for Manuscripts and Archival Documents in Postcolonial Morocco
-
Published:2023-07-31
Issue:3
Volume:55
Page:421-443
-
ISSN:0020-7438
-
Container-title:International Journal of Middle East Studies
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:Int. J. Middle East Stud.
Abstract
AbstractThe trajectory of the Hassan II Prize for Manuscripts, a government initiative begun in the late 1960s to locate rare manuscripts in private collections, is a potent example of the role Arabic-script manuscript culture played in post-colonial nation-building in Morocco. This article presents the history of the Hassan II Prize for Manuscripts, demonstrating how Moroccan bureaucrats used the recovery of archival documents and especially historic manuscripts in Arabic-script, as part of a multi-faceted nation-building project after European colonization. Their project included connecting historic manuscripts to Moroccan identity and territorial sovereignty. It contends that the ramifications of linking these policies with documentary heritage would affect what came to be discovered, valorized, and preserved in the “national collection” and subsequently, what histories could be written.
Funder
American Institute for Maghrib Studies
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Sociology and Political Science,History,Geography, Planning and Development,Sociology and Political Science,History,Geography, Planning and Development