The Arab Imago by Stephen Sheehi;

Author:Stephen Sheehi;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 46. G. Kirkorian, Ê¿Asim Effendi Mudir al-Tahrirah, AH 1305 (1887), carte de visite given to Bishara Effendi Habib.

Figure 47. G. Krikorian & G. Saboungi, Ê¿Asim Effendi Mudir al-Tahrirah, Jerusalem and Jaffa, AH 1308 (1890), carte de visite given to Bishara Effendi Habib.

Portraits’ Currency

“The photographic portraiture,” Vincent Rafael tells us in speaking of photography in the Philippines, “was meant not only to convey the person’s likeness but to situate it in relation to the viewer. Such was the function of the dedications . . . addressed to specific recipients, evoking a sense of intimacy between sender and receiver.”28 The dedications and signatures on the cartes de visite of Jawhariyyeh’s first album bear the stain of sentiment, intimacy, and social history. They trace vectors and connections essential to Palestinian social and political relations. Among the first pages of Jawhariyyeh’s Tarikh are three images of an enigmatic ʿAsim Effendi, “director of the registry” (mudir al-tahrirah). The first image is a close head shot vignette taken by Garabed Krikorian (fig. 46). It is dated AH 1305 (1887), the end of the administration of Raʾuf Pasha, mutasarrif of Jerusalem. Adjacent to this portrait, there is a second carte de visite of ʿAsim Effendi, this time produced by G. Krikorian & G. Saboungi, who co-owned a studio in Jaffa (fig. 47).

While the Krikorian and Saboungi portrait is more groomed, compositionally and in content, the soft head vignette formalistically conveys a subjective depth that precisely illustrates the verum factum’s tension. In the end, little is known about ʿAsim Effendi. He could be the person with the same name who was lieutenant governor of Jerusalem in the early 1890s. If this is the case, his dedication and relation to Bishara Habib is telling. Bishara Effendi Habib was a high-ranking functionary in Raʾuf Pasha’s office and mainstay in the office of the mutasarrif, outlasting in the Jerusalem administration an assortment of subsequent governors. ʿAsim’s sentiment of loyalty and appreciation to Habib is better understood when one remembers that Raʾuf Pasha attempted to dislodge both of Jerusalem’s rival, leading families, al-Husaynis and al-Khalidis, from municipal and judicial positions that they had dominated for centuries, calling them “parasites” on the peasantry.29 This is perhaps evidence that the image is certainly not ʿAsim Effendi al-Husseini. In the narrative of Arab nationalism, this attempt was spun anachronistically as an attempt to Turkify the administration of the sanjak. More accurately, however, Raʾuf Pasha was implementing governmental policies to curb notables’ power in rationalizing principles of Ottoman governance. Simply put, he was attempting to implement the same forms of Osmanlilik governmentality that were being extended throughout the empire.30 ʿAsim Effendi shared a social network with Bishara Effendi Habib, who as secretary and interpreter to successive governors, was an established functionary, with a degree of influence, if not power.31

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