Islam and Heritage in Europe

Katarzyna Puzon is an anthropologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH), Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Sharon Macdonald is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Social Anthropology in the Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she founded and directs CARMAH – the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage. Mirjam Shatanawi is Research Fellow at the National Museum of World Cultures and Lecturer in Heritage Theory at the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam.

• Foreword; Heritage, Islam, Europe: Entanglements and Directions. An Introduction; Part I. Embodied Heritage and Belonging; 1. From Postcoloniality to Decoloniality, From Heritage to Perpetuation: the Islamic at the Museum; 2. Cemetery Poetics: The Sonic Life of Cemeteries in Muslim Europe; 3. Germans without Footnotes: Islam, Belonging and Poetry Slam in Berlin; 4. The Here and Now and the Hereafter: Engaging with Fragrant Realities in Muslim-minority Russia; Part II. The Nation-State and Identity Formations; 5. Reviving al-Andalus: Commemorating Spain’s Islamic Heritage in the Context of Democratic Transition; 6. Museum Islamania in France: Islamic Art as a Political and Social Scene; 7. The Materialities and Legalities of Forgetting: Dispossession and the Making of Turkey’s (Post-) Ottoman Heritage; Part III. Categories, Connections and Contemporary Challenges; 8. Museum Narratives of Islam between Art, Archaeology and Ethnology: A Structural Injustice Approach; 9. Connecting the Ancient and the Modern Middle East in Museums and Public Space; 10. Re-framing Islam? Potentials and Challenges of Participatory Initiatives in Museums and Heritage

"Evocative, lucid writing frames and enhances the powerfully localizing and sense-oriented logic that organizes this collection. Invoking smell, sound, and sight to re-frame Islam's presence in Europe, its authors dismantle preconceived assumptions about Islamic culture and heritage, thereby moving us away from the administrative obsessions of colonial academia, the hostility of dominant and state-supported religious institutions, and the self-congratulation of a narrow European humanism." – Michael Herzfeld, Ernest E. Monrad Research Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University."This is a highly stimulating collection of essays [...] that moves on from generalities and narrow definitions and from the assumptions and well-funded pieties of the recent past. Fresh research and practice give it a welcome edge. The scope of this book is impressive- not only geographical but also conceptual. It's also user-focused, which is surprisingly rare in this field." – John Reeve, Tutor at the Institute of Education and former Head of Education at the British Museum."A tour de force, this collection takes readers away from the well-trodden path of positivist art historical and archaeological analysis of Islamic heritage, offering instead a compelling, in situ investigation of the contemporary period, and a thorough guide to the most exciting works-in-progress in the field today." -- Virginie Rey, Deakin University, International Journal of Heritage Studies.