(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Fanar Media).
Teaching ancient history can be challenging in a small Gulf state like Qatar. Unlike the bigger countries in the Mediterranean and the Near East, there are few structures that are older than a few hundred years. Qatar’s only Unesco World Heritage Site, the partly excavated town of Al Zubarah, dates back no further than the eighteenth century.
The skyline of Doha, like those of Abu Dhabi or Manama, is now dominated more by futuristic high-rises than by historical fortresses or places of worship. How can instructors make students in such a hypermodern environment feel connected to long-gone cultures?
The lack of large physical remains does not mean that the Qatari peninsula was devoid of the influence of ancient civilisations, of course. The southern shores of the Gulf were in easy reach of the empires of Persia and Mesopotamia for thousands of years, hence the use of the name “Persian Gulf” alongside the more recent coinage “Arabian Gulf” until today. The entire region became Hellenised after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Greek-derived words have persisted into Modern Standard Arabic. Examples include “kanōn”, which survives as “qānūn”, meaning “law,” in Arabic (and as “canon” in English).
Linguistic Excursions
Because I cannot take the participants of my history courses in Qatar on a quick fieldtrip to the ruins of a Greek temple or a Roman fort, I have talked instead about the linguistic traces. Take, for instance, the Latin word “castrum”, for “fort”. It has given us the Arabic word “qaṣr”, meaning “palace” (and via the diminutive “castellum” the English word “castle”). A similar piece of evidence for civilisational exchange in the realm of architecture is the Arabic term “burj”, meaning “tower” (as in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa). It is related to Greek “púrgos”, Latin “burgus”, and English “borough”.
While my students have been generally curious about old linguistic connections, some have been resistant to the idea that the Qur’an itself contains loanwords. Another widely travelled word from the Roman Empire is “strata”, referring to a paved road. It gave rise to “street” in English and to “ṣirāt” in Arabic. The opening chapter of the Qur’an uses this word, asking God to guide the worshippers along the “straight path” (“al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm”). Occasionally, students have objected to the thought that the Arabic Scripture, believed to be God’s word, could have borrowed vocabulary from another language. They insisted instead that any borrowing could only have occurred in the other direction.
Architectural Treasure Hunts
As interesting as etymology may be, visual proof of the relationships between ancient and modern cities in the Middle East can be even more powerful.
Unlike many places in the Levant, North Africa, and Europe, the Gulf does not have any amphitheatres surviving from antiquity. Given the scarcity of freshwater before the invention of modern desalination technologies, you will not find any millennia-old aqueducts or public bathhouses (“thermae” in Latin, “ḥammām” in Arabic) either. Nevertheless, modern elites in the Gulf shared the desire of their counterparts in Europe and North America to establish an artistic connection to ancient Greece and Rome.
Although Neoclassicism is mostly understood as a Western cultural movement, it equally appealed to urban planners in Doha. One of the city’s most iconic contemporary developments is the Katara Cultural Village, which itself uses an ancient name of Qatar. Its design is centred on a modern, but Greek-inspired amphitheatre.
Even if you are teaching in a city without Neoclassical monuments like the Katara ampitheatre, you will probably still be able to find local examples of the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. You may even build a course assignment around such a search. Why not send your students out to find references to antiquity in the built environment? Participants in my history courses discovered elements of classical architecture, such as arches, columns and pediments, in places as different as malls, law offices and private homes all around Doha. The ubiquitous marble seems to be as beloved by Arab architects as it was by their Greek and Roman predecessors.
Classical Heritage as a Bridge between East and West
As a historian, I hope that by learning about Latin words in the Qur’an or Greek columns in shopping malls, my Qatari students realise how the ancient past is still a part of their lives in the twenty-first century. Perhaps some of them will develop enough interest to pursue a graduate degree in classics, archaeology or ancient history.
At the very least, my aim is to have students understand that ancient Greece and Rome are not only part of Mediterranean history, but also have a place in the Indian Ocean world. The classical heritage thus connects Christian and Islamic lands and Western and Eastern civilisations more broadly. This consciousness can help build bridges in our divided world.
Jörg Matthias Determann teaches history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He can be reached at [email protected].
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