The Myth of Islamic Heritage versus Authentic Tradition

Abstract

In the last few decades, Islamic urban heritage has emerged as a concept associated with notions of national and cultural identity. However, if we distinguish between heritage, in its contemporary sense, and the inherited, the question is, does all the inherited constitute heritage? Can we form heritage by selecting from history? As argued in this article, the contemporary notion of Islamic urban heritage was manufactured in a selective, politicized manner to serve, among its objectives, the process of instituting a national identity that embraces capitalist mechanisms and aims to maintain its power structure. It is a politicized process that empties history and tradition from their authenticity to create an image of the past, one that has never existed. It is simply a falsification of the past, or a simulacrum.