Pray to the Archive: Abstracting History in Zanzibar

Archival readings of architecture, while common in scholarly work on Zanzibar's Stone Town, can obscure the island's complex and layered histories rather than illuminate them. This study demonstrates that such approaches often romanticize a past Indian Ocean cosmopolitanism at odds with Zanzibari reality, using the Khoja Jamatkhana as a case study. By analyzing formal architecture and historical context through the lens of contemporary artist Zarina Bhimji's work, the research reveals how archival readings limit our understanding of space-history relationships. The findings suggest that abstracting history in this manner restricts rather than expands our grasp of Zanzibar's architectural heritage.

Kara, T. (2020). Pray to the Archive: Abstracting History in Zanzibar. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 9(2), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijia_00014_1