Friday, August 10, 2007

1936 Travelogue to Damascus and Jerusalem

Sometimes youtube spits up pure brilliance:

Damascus and Jerusalem in a 1936 travelogue. Syria was under French mandate, and Jerusalem was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. 1936 is in fact the beginning of the Arab revolt in Palestine, which lasted until 1939. But the haughty superiorior expressed by the narrator, the mangling of foreign words, calling Islam "Mohammadan" - this is truly a gem. The narrator is particularly keen on emphasizing the dirtiness and lack of progress of Damascus:

"Cheap soap, but from the appearance of the people there is little demand for it." Men are described as wearing "headdressed which remind us of Biblical characters." At a bakery, we are reminded "no, the baker's not wearing gloves."

How Orientalist can you get?

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