Photo by Zaenal Abidin on Unsplash
Ali explores the ways in which the Qur’an was received and displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago through her work The Qur’an at the World’s Fair: Orientalism, Exhibitionism, and the Sacred Text.
Critical here is the notion of orientalism — check out my article here on Iwamura’s Virtual Orientalism to learn more. Generally, “orientalism” may be defined — drawing back to Edward Said — as referring to the Western depiction and study of Eastern cultures, with a focus on their portrayal of Eastern culture as backward, exotic, and/or static in contrast to the West.
Ali first examines how the mere presentation of the Qur’an at the World’s Fair was filtered via an Orientalist framework. In Ali’s view, the Qur’an and Islamic culture were displayed at the exposition through a lens of exoticism and “otherness,” as opposed to being a part of a living, deeply entrenched, and complex tradition. The Qur’an was seen almost as an artifact of a distant East, as opposed to a dynamic religious text that is still very much alive.
Ali furthermore says that the treatment of the Qur’an at the fair reveals how sacred texts and religious symbols can be commoditized and stripped of their religious and cultural significance — in the case of the Qur’an, being separated from its spiritual and theological role and meanings, and instead shown to be a secular object.
She expands this to the secularization of sacred objects in exhibitions in the West and how the West has historically stripped non-Christian religions of their sacred meaning and objects. The late 19th century saw a rise in popular orientalism — along with a general interest in Islam — throughout the U.S. and the broader West, but this interest was filtered through an imperialist and backward/secular lens.
Legacy of the Qur’an at the World Fair
Ali says that the 1893 World’s Fair set a precedent for how Islamic culture and the Qur’an would come to be understood in Western popular culture and continues to shape Western views of Islam to this day, primarily regarding it as exotic, distant, and unchanging.
So, hope that answers your question! Check out my other articles on religion, whether for studying or just to learn, here!