Heritage, modernity and the Muhajirin in Amman: decolonising urban knowledge in Ras-Al-Ein

Abstract

ABSTRACTAuthoritative urban knowledge (AUK) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a neocolonial construct firmly rooted in oriental imaginaries and colonial/modern urbanism. It informs the managerial epistemology of neoliberal ‘development’ projects, where urban studies are confined to diagnostic analysis and optimistic calls for local inclusion to counteract state authority and foreign hegemony. This study critically examines the epistemic production of urban spaces at the nexus of heritage, modernity, and migration in the MENA, anchoring the criticism in a case study of urban development in Ras-Al-Ein – also known as the Muhajirin (refugees) neighbourhood – in the historic core of Amman. It then couples ethnographic interviews conducted with the residents of Ras-Al-Ein with decolonial thinking to explore local engagement with urban space as ‘subjugated knowledge’, and to contest the persistence of the AUK. It validates this engagement as local urban knowledge (LUK) and capitalises on the self-critique, irony and resistance depicted in Ras-Al-Ein to argue for a decolonial approach to urban knowledge. It argues that LUK can shift the debate in urban studies from practice analysis to an ethnographic theorisation of urban knowledge. This theorisation is crucial for challenging adverse perceptions of peoples and places and informing development with prudent knowledge.KEYWORDS: Local urban knowledgeauthoritative urban knowledgeknowledge decolonisationurban heritage developmentrefugees AcknowledgementI thank Sondos Hammad and Abdulrahman Al-Debsi for their help in conducting the interviews in 2021. Sarah Elliott, Annalisa Bolin and Lynn Meskell revised the article and provided great advice and immense help. I am grateful for their support. The people of Amman keep welcoming me to their homes and generously sharing their thoughts, memories and worries. Without their generosity and support, this article would not have come to light.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Elsheshtawy (Citation2008) poses the ontological question, ‘Do Arabs still exist? Not in the sense of a physical presence – but rather as a vital and contributing civilization’.2. From the English poet Alfred William Hunt’s 1851 prize poem, Nineveh—‘But aught beyond tradition’s oral tale/Or gleams of truth, like wavering sunlights pale,/The Arab knows not, though around him rise/The sepulchres of earth’s first monarchies’.3. From the English scholar Henry Tristram’s 1882 Palestine travel journal observation on Amman.4. From the English poet, writer, and adventurer Charles Doughty’s 1888 two-volume book, Travels in Arabia Deserta.5. Al-Ahli was the name given to the club by the founder of modern Jordan, Amir Abdullah. Meaning ‘family and relatives’, it replaced the old Circassian name and was intended to indicate the brotherly bond between the people of Amman.Additional informationNotes on contributorsShatha Abu-KhafajahShatha Abu-Khafajah is an associate professor in the Architectural Engineering Department at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, Jordan. She is interested in using the decolonial approach to advance the role of heritage in knowledge production and education. Her research interests include synthesizing architecture, archaeology and anthropology to establish a sustainable approach to heritage management in the Arab region that is community basedand context-oriented.