English and Cultural Studies

General Overview: This film introduces us to Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-born Yemeni living in London after his parents’ exile from Yemen. Bader returns to Yemen to re-discover his country, its people and traditions. Under the guiding hand of an Englishman Tim Makintosh-Smith, who has been living as a Yemeni in the ancient city of Sana'a for the past 16 years, Ben Hirsi travels throughout his ancestral homeland. The 2000-documentary film   The English Sheikh and The Yemeni Gentleman   is a documentary film made by Ben Hirsi in an attempt to counter the highly damaging publicity to which the death of Western hostages in Abyan 1998 had exposed Yemen. The presence of the westerner Tim Mackintosh Smith who plays a crucial rule as commentator and guide is very significance because the film is produced for people in the west. Before studying the construction of the notion of home, I deem it relevant to briefly shed light on theorizing this concept. Theorizing the Notion o...

Introduction This article addresses Mosque space in the context of the city of Fez, Morocco. These mosques are Al-Qarawiyyin, Othman Ben Afan, Sidi Ibrahim, Idris al-Awwal and Abdullah Bin Masoud. In fact, this sacred space holds up to view the rich history of art and architecture of the Islamic city of Fez. The unique structure of mosque space gives it a special quality and effect: it is endowed with and communicates religious values and principles through its different elements and patterns such as minaret, mihrab, minbar and unique Islamic decorations and patterns. Yet, the claim of ‘purism’ or authenticity of such local sacred space cannot be maintained due to the process of transformation that leads to the intervention of the new technology. Yet, it is also hard to argue that globalization obliterates the locality of such sacred space. Hence, it is wise to pose and see how the local and the global do not conflict, but rather they are the two different inhabitants that ‘cohabit’...