Muhammad Sadiq Bey
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Transcript of Muhammad Sadiq Bey
Mecca's First Photographers (1880-1890): Lives, Activities and WorkJan Just Witkam (Leiden University, the Netherlands), www.janjustwitkam.nl
Thursday, 18 April 2013, 18:00 hrs, NVIC, Cairo
Issues at stake
- Photography as an innovation
- The Western fascination of Mecca
- How to write the history of photography of Mecca?
- The men: Sadiq Bey, the two ‘Abd al-Ghaffars, and their ambitions
- The techniques: camera, dark room, distilled water
- The objects: buildings, landscapes, people
- The circumstances: climate, opportunities
- Sources of information: the photographs, the archives
- Dangers encountered in the research; research analysis
Photography as an innovation
Egypt’s mufti Muhammad Bakhit al- Muti`i (1856-1935) is the author of many fatwas. One of these treats photography, or so it says on the title- page.
The booklet (published in 1920 or later, not in 1302/1885 as the title- page seems to indicate) does in fact nothing more than to repeat the classical, mostly negative Islamic opinions on images.
Photography, nor phonography, nor telegraphy for that matter, could eventually be forbidden in principle by the scholars, as their use had become too widespread. Their use could be regulated, however.
Source: Leiden University Library 8029 F 32
The first reliable European image of the Haram in Mecca was published by Adrian Reland in 1717. It is based on Islamic images (Iznik tiles, miniatures) which were flat projections. Reland made a reconstruction in perspective. Source: Engraving in Leiden University Library 409 F 4, between pp. 120-121.
The mosques of Mecca
(right) and of Medina.Miniatures
in
an
Ottoman manuscript of
the Dalâ’il al- Khayrât,
Istanbul 1254/1838. A
luxury
prayer book
dating
from
one
year before
the
invention
of photography.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 12.455, ff. 15b-
16a.
The situation as shown on this miniature is basically how Mecca and Medina looked like when they were first photographed in the 1880’s.
Ottoman propaganda poster in ‘The Cairo Punch’, al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo 1909. Colour lithograph. Source: Collections Egyptian National Library, Cairo
Commercial advertisement for the sale of a set of images of the Hijaz, here with a view on the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. They may have been taken, directly or indirectly, from one of the images by Muhammad Sadiq Bey.
From a poster in ‘The Cairo Punch’, al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo 1909 (detail).
Source: Collections Egyptian National Library, Cairo
Early techniques: A
dark
room in the
field.
Apart from
a camera and glass
plates, the photographer
needed
a laboratory. He needed
chemicals
for
working
on
his plates, and for
developing, rinsing and fixing. He even
had to produce clean water himself.
Source: S.Th. Stein, Das Licht im Dienste wissenschaftlicher
Forschung. 2. Band (Halle 21888), fig. 118.
Mecca’s first three photographers (1880-1890)
1. The Egyptian
officer
and engineer, Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
(1822-1902).French
education, member
of Egyptian
delegation. He has between
1860
and 1896 written
several
books
on
journeys
to the Hijaz, which
contain illustrations
shown
in different techniques
(woodcut, lithography).
He knew
photographers
2 and 3 personally, but
did
not
work
together
with them. The story of his
photography
is fairly
straightforward.
2. ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
b. ‘Abd
al-Rahman
al-Baghdadi
(no
life
dates available), usually
known
as ‘the Meccan
doctor’). Lived
in Mecca, went abroad
sometimes
(Egypt: dentistry). His
failed
attempts
to portrait
photography
are documented
for
late 1884. He closely
cooperated
with
photographer
No. 3
on
several
levels. Except
a few letters and family
documents
no
written sources
on
his
life
and work. A man of many
technical
talents.
3. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
(1857-1936), the Dutch Orientalist
and colonial
adviser. Muslim
name in Jeddah
and Mecca
(1884-1885): ‘Abd
al-
Ghaffar
(a coincidence). Brought
a good
camera, knew
new
techniques, cooperated
with
No. 2 in a common
studio, mostly
on
portrait
photography.
His
monograph
on
Mecca
(1888-1889) and his
archives
are historical sources. Close cooperation
with
No. 2, personal
acquaintance
of No. 1.
Mecca’s
first
photographer
The Egyptian
officer
and engineer Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
(1822-
1902), the first
photographer
of Mecca
(and Medina), in 1880.
He had a French
education (Polytechnique) and learned drawing
and photography
in Paris,
possibly
already
in the 1840’s.
Several
Egyptian
delegations
to the Higaz. Several
books, with
illustrations, published.
His
books
were
recently
(Beirut 1999) republished
by
Muhammad
Hammam Fikri.
Source: Portrait
of 1896, frontispice of Dalil al-Hadj. Copy
in
Leiden University
Library
884 F 48
Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
and Photography:
Summary of his travels: First visit Medina in 1277/1860, followed by a second visit to al-Medina in 1861 (described in Nubdhat Istikshaf …). Second trip in 1880, third trip in 1884. These latter two were for the religious duty of the pilgrimage. The first known photography was done in 1880. His two works (Mash`al al-Mahmal and Kawkab al-Hajj) are devoted to the trips in the 1880’s. His fourth trip, on official mission, in 1885. The latter is described in a supplement to Kawkab. The Dalil al-Hagg of 1889 is a pilgrim’s guide, not a travelogue. A fifth work treats a trip to Istanbul (not seen).
Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
on photographing Medina (12 December 1881):
‘I took a picture (rasm) of al-Madina
al-Munawwara
with the light-rays instrument which is called photography, with the cupola over the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, and I took a point from where I had a view over Medina from the roof of the arsenal (Tupkhana), as I considered to be suitable as it allowed me (to take) part of the residential part
(al-Manakha)
also. I took the noble cupola from inside the mosque, also with the said instrument. No one had done this before me at all.’Source: Mash`al al-Mahmal, Cairo 1881, p. 16.
Muhammad Sadiq Bey, Mash’al al-Mahmal, Cairo 1881, p. 16 (Leiden 8081 D 43)
Photograph of the mosque in Medina by Muhammad Sadiq Bey, 1880. Source: Mannheim, Reis-Engelhorn Museum, WR 12/06 Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 136.
Muhammad Sadiq Bey, View of Medina, taken from the city’s Arsenal. The photograph dates from 1881. In 1896 the photograph could be reproduced as a photo and did not need to be redrawn and cut in wood for reproduction, as had been the case fifteen years earlier.Source text: Dalil al-Hagg, Cairo 1896, p. 26 (Leiden 884 F 48)
Photograph of the Great Mosque in Mecca by Muhammad Sadiq Bey, 1880. Source: Mannheim, Reis- Engelhorn Museum, WR 12/05 Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 129.
Muhammad Sadiq Bey on photographing in Mecca:
‘These days I was able to take the picture of the Great Mosque of Mecca and the Ka`ba by way of photography, and also of its courtyard as far as possible because of the enormous crowd ant the lack of space.’
Source text: Mash`al al- Mahmal, p. 35
Muhammad Sadiq Bey, as an engineer, had an interest in the documentation of buildings and fortifications. He drew maps as well. He extended his interest by photographing landscapes. Some of his photographs are portraits of individuals or group portraits.
His official status as a high ranking member of the caravan bringing the Mahmal from Cairo to Mecca must haven given hem a great freedom of movement. We may assume that while making photographs he was accompanied by military and technical personnel.
In his work there is no consideration in relation to the theological discussions about the question whether photography was permitted at all.
He knew everything of the new technique, and because of what he had seen in France and in Egypt, he must have been convinced that introduction of it was merely a matter of time.
He was very much aware of his own status of the first photographer of the two Holy Cities.
Prospectus for the sale in Cairo of twelve photographs by Muhammad Sadiq Bey of Mecca, the surroundings of Mecca, and Medina.
The collection was, as the prospectus states, the recipient of the gold medal at the Third International Geographical Congress and Exhibition at Venice, in 1881.
He also would have been awarded with a diploma for much earlier photographs (1860, 1861?) of Medina, during the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelpha, in 1876. No further information available.
Original in the Mannheim, Reis-Engelhorn Museum. Image from Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 53.
Al-Sayyid
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
ibn
‘Abd
al- Rahman
al-Baghdadi, the first
Arab
photographer
of Mecca, 1885.
A medical doctor and a man of many more talents. Photography seemed to him one of many ways to generate income in a city of pilgrims, but so did medical science, dentistry, watch making, alchemy/chemistry, being a gunsmith, etc. Photographic experiments already in 1884, but failed.
Medical science has remained in his family. His great-grandson, Dr. Hashim
Abdulghafar
of Mecca, was for a while the Saudi Deputy-Minister of Health.Portrait
possibly
made by
C. Snouck Hurgronje, the other
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar, Mecca, first
half of 1885.Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive, University
Leiden. Or. 26.403 (Nino
1.26).
Relevant chronology of Al-Sayyid
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
ibn
‘Abd
al-Rahman
al- Baghdadi, the first
Arab
photographer
of Mecca, 1885-1889.
Motives: mainly
economic.
-
Must have known
about
(and may
have seen?) the photographs
of Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
of Mecca
and Medina of 1880/1881.
-
Failed (or not very beautiful?) portrait of the Ottoman governor of the Hijaz, ‘Uthman
Nuri
Pasha (not preserved), 1884.
-
Meets Snouck
Hurgronje, who has modern equipment and knowledge, in Mecca in early 1885. Starts cooperation with him; the camera and
equipment
are in his house. Common photography (portraits of Meccan
men and women). Active cooperation lasts till Snouck’s
eviction in early August 1885.
-
Late 1885 till 1887 occupied with other things, a.o. dentistry in Egypt.
-
1887-1889. Photography on behalf of Snouck
Hurgronje, without doubt assignable to him: Landscapes, buildings, portraits. Only preserved what he sent to Holland. Some documentation in letters. Complex relationship.
-
At least one photograph by him has survived in a Yildiz
album in Istanbul.
-
No information for the period of 1889 and after. Snouck
Hurgronje
makes a career move and departs in 1889 for a job in the Dutch East-Indies.
Panoramic view of Mecca (2/4), by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor in Mecca. Similar to Sadiq
Bey. Source: C. Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka (1889), No. 3
The Haram
in Mecca from inside during prayer, by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar the doctor in Mecca. Source: C. Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka (1889), No. 1
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor in Mecca would sign his negatives with a sort of calligraphic vignette: ‘Photograph by al-
Sayyid
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar, doctor in Mecca’. When his photographs were reproduced in Snouck
Hurgronje’s
Bilder aus Mekka,
the signatures were removed. We do not why this was done.Source: Snouck
Hurgronje
Archive, Leiden University, ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar’s
original photographs, e.g. Or. 26.367 (OI, F-11)
The tomb of Sitti
Maymuna, one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, outside Mecca. Photograph by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor in Mecca, 1889.
Source: Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder
aus
Mekka, No. 9B.
The riding camel of the Sharif Yahya
(second from right). Photograph by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor in Mecca, 1889.
Source: Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka, 1889, No. 17.
For ‘Abd al- Ghaffar it was important to have rich clients. To Snouck Hurgronje’s dismay he almost never made portraits of ‘ordinary’ people, servants, slaves or women.
Group portrait: a Turkish officer, an Indian merchant, and male family members. Photograph by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor in Mecca, 1886-1887.
Source: Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 10.
Portrait of ‘Abdullah, the son of the Sharif Husayn, dressed in Kozak
costume. Mecca 1886.
He is the later king ‘Abdullah of Transjordan.
Photograph by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar the doctor in Mecca, 1886.
He made several more portraits of members of the Sharifan
family.
Source: Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 12-3.
Portrait of a Meccan
woman.Photograph by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the
doctor in Mecca, 1886.
Snouck
Hurgronje
had asked him often for more female portraits, but these remain rare in the collection. It was quite something when a woman could be persuaded to lift het veil and go public.
And when ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
finally sent a few portraits of women, Snouck
Hurgronje
complained
that the women were not beautiful enough. Generally speaking he was horrified of ‘the daughters of Mecca’, mostly because of their greed.Source: Snouck
Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 25-1.
Street scene in Mecca, 1886: Police
station, with
the Ottoman governor. Lithograph
after
a photograph
by
al-Sayyid
Abd
al-
Ghaffar, the Meccan
Doctor.
Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 6
Street scene in Mecca, 1886: Police
station,
with
Ottoman governor.
Photograph
by
al- Sayyid
Abd
al-
Ghaffar, the Meccan
Doctor.
His
only
known photograph
outside
the Snouck Hurgronje corpus.
Source: Yildiz-Album, IRCICA, Istanbul, No. 90877-23
Portrait
of a Meccan
woman dressed
up as a bride.
Snouck Hurgronje needed such
an
image of a bride
and
bridegroom
because
he extensively
described
in his
Mekka, vol. 2, the marriage ceremonies in Mecca, as part
of the private life
of the Meccans.
Photograph
by
al-Sayyid
Abd al-Ghaffar, the Meccan
Doctor, 1887.
Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 25-3.
Objects
of daily
life
from Mecca.
Lithograph
made from
the objects
themselves
(genuine
colours!).
Earlier attempts by ‘Abd al-Ghaffar
the doctor to
make
photographs
of objects
had failed.
The Dutch vice-consul P.N. van der Chijs
from
1886 onwards
sent a large number
of objects
from
Jeddah
to Holland. These have been preserved. Source:
Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 38.
Ghar
Thawr, where
the Prophet
and Abu Bakr
hid.
Landscape photograph
by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar
the doctor.
Caption
in top, signed
with a calligraphy
at the bottom
(inset):
Source: MS Leiden Or. 26.367 (OI F-11)
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, in Mecca, 1885, or
Jeddah
1884.
He has now
taken the Muslim name of ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar.
Photograph
possibly
taken by ‘Abd
al-Ghaffar, the Meccan
doctor.
Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive. Leiden, University
Library, Or. 8952, foto A-2.
Short chronology
of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s
life
1857 born
in Oosterhout, Netherlands1880 PhD
thesis Leiden: The Meccan
Festival
1884-1885 Stay
in Jeddah
and Mecca1888-1889 publication
of Mekka I and II, photographs
1889-1906 governmental
adviser
in Batavia/Jakarta1906-1927 Professor of Arabic and Islam, Leiden1906-1909 sound recordings
Mecca
(at his
instruction)
1931 publication
English
translation
Mekka II, reprint: 20071936 Died
in Leiden
1979-1985 controversies in the Dutch press1997 opening archives
(60 years
after
his
death)
2007 publication
Witkam on
Snouck Hurgronje’s
life
in Mecca
The Snouck Hurgronje Archives
contain
letters, documents, reports, photographs, sound recordings, all mostly
unused,
important for
Arabic and Indonesian
studies.
Why
did
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje go to Mecca?
-
Study
Islam in an
environment uncontaminated
by
western influence
and values.
-
Monitor the attitudes of the Indonesian
colony
in Mecca
(the Jawah) in view of the Dutch colonial
wars in South
East Asia
(Sultanate
Acheh
and other
conflicts) and colonial
rule
over Muslims.-
Monitor the much
feared
pan-Islamism.
How
did
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje go to Mecca, and away?
-
1884 Jeddah, acclimatization, development
of strategies, making acquaintances, first
photographs
of returning
pilgrims.
-
Late 1884 official conversion
to Islam, circumcision.-
1885 moves to Muslim
quarter
of Jeddah,
-
22 February
1885 enters Mecca
with
the Bantenese
Aboe
Bakar-
Makes
many
important acquaintances; buys
Ethiopian
slave
girl,
who
gives
him
information
on
female
life
in Mecca.-
August 1885, sudden
ejection
from
Mecca.
-
1885-1889 series of publications
about
Meccan
history
and life.
Designs for
devices
with
which water can
be
distilled. This
was necessary
for
Snouck Hurgronje’s
photography,
since
he
might
not
find
clean water in Jeddah
or
Mecca.
Source: Letter from
Piet van Romburgh
to C. Snouck Hurgronje, 27 juli 1884. Snouck Hurgronje Archive, UB Leiden, Or. 8952.
The Dutch colony in Jeddah, fall 1884. Snouck Hurgronje at the back, in white cloth. Courtyard of the Dutch Consulate. Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive, Leiden Or. 8952
‘Awn
al-Rafiq, the ruling Sharif
of Mecca
in 1885.
Portrait
in cooperation
by C. Snouck Hurgronje and
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar, the doctor, 1885.
Better
than
any
fatwa, a portrait
of the Sharif
himself
was a legitimation of photographing
in the
Holy
City.
Source: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder- Atlas
1889, No. 7
Ibrahim Nuri
Pasha, the Ottoman
governor
of the
Hijaz.
Portrait
in cooperation
by C. Snouck Hurgronje
and/or
‘Abd
al-Ghaffar, the doctor, 1885.
Source: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder- Atlas
1889, No. 8
Acehnese
pilgrims in the courtyard
of
the Dutch consulate, Jedda, 1884. Photograph
by
Snouck Hurgronje.
The leader, second
from
right,
is now
identified as Teungku
di
Cot
Plieng, a famous resistance
fighter
in the Aceh-war.
Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-
Atlas, 1889, No. 36
The Dutch were engaged, between 1873- 1904, in a war of attrition against the Sultanate of Aceh, North Sumatra.
Pilgrims
from
Martapura
(South
Kalimantan). Photograph
by
C. Snouck Hurgronje, in courtyard
Dutch consulate, Jeddah, 1884.
Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 29
The shaykh
of the boat-people
in Jeddah
(second
of right?), with members
of his
guild. Photograph
by
C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884.
Courtyard
of the Dutch Consulate. Source:
Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 24-1
A posed
portrait
of a street vendor of sweets
in Jeddah.
Photograph
by
C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884. Courtyard
of
the Dutch Consulate, Jeddah.
Source:
Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 24-1
Group portrait
of an
African
tumbura orchestra
in Jeddah. Lithograph, because
all photographs
of the group
were
blurred. After
several
Photographs, possibly
by
C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884. Courtyard
of the Dutch Consulate, Jeddah. Source:
Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 18
African
slave
with
a camel, carrying
water bags. Photograph
by C. Snouck Hurgronje, Jeddah
1884. Source:
MS Leiden, 12.288 N 12