Understanding the Islamic State's War on Heritage

Following their conquest of vast swathes of territory across both Syria and Iraq from 2013, the Sunni jihadist network known as the Islamic State (IS) unleashed an unprecedented period of mass heritage destruction: ancient archaeological sites were looted and blown up; museums were ransacked; ancient buildings and statues were razed to the ground; religious sites were reduced to rubble; and state institutions such as libraries and museums were desecrated. This raises two important questions: 1. Why would the IS dedicate resources – human, financial and military – to the active targeting of heritage sites when they are so deeply embroiled in the complexities of capturing and securing new territories, imposing a new theocratic state, and fighting several concurrent asymmetric battles against a myriad of enemies?; and 2. Why would the IS dedicate further resources to methodically documenting this destruction on film and in photographs before disseminating it to audiences all over the world via digital media? This essay attempts to address these two questions by articulating a framework for interpreting the heritage destruction undertaken by the IS along eight key axes: pre-monotheistic iconoclasm; symbolic sectarianism; erasing minorities; political iconoclasm; revenue raising; propaganda fodder; recruitment and indoctrination; and rejecting the West.

Benjamin Isakhan is Associate Professor of Politics and Policy Studies and Founding Director of Polis, a research network for Politics and International Relations in the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, Australia. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Consulting Scholar at the Penn Cultural Heritage Centre, University of Pennsylvania, US. Ben is a leading expert on Middle East Politics with a focus on heritage – its destruction and reconstruction – in the region.

Date
Thu May 16th 2019, 5:00 - 7:00pm
Location
Stanford Archaeology Center
Event Sponsor
Stanford Archaeology Center
Contact Phone Number
Speaker
Benjamin Isakhan