 Official logo | |
| Formation | 23 Nov 2020 [1] |
|---|---|
| Type | Cultural education and support CIC |
| Headquarters | London, England. |
Founder and CEO | Tahir Shah [2] |
Co-Founder | Ariane Shah |
| Agustin Gonzalez Ariane Shah Jason Webster [3] | |
| Website | Official website |
The Scheherazade Foundation CIC is a non-profit community interest company (CIC) established in 2020 [1] to support cultural education and intercultural bridge-building. It is based in London, England. [4] [5]
The Scheherazade Foundation is a private, non-profit community interest company (CIC) established in 2020 [1] by the writer and film-maker Tahir Shah and his daughter, Ariane Shah, [6] to support cultural education and intercultural bridge-building. It is based in London, England. [4] [5] The company's registration number in the UK is 13038593. [4] [5]
The CIC is named after Scheherazade, the storyteller and main female character in the frame story of the collection of Middle Eastern tales, One Thousand and One Nights . [4]
The three main aims of The Scheherazade Foundation are: [4] [6]
In 2022, work began on renovating a one-acre, walled property, Dar Khalifa (The Caliph's House), in the Ain Diab district of Casablanca, to turn it into the headquarters of The Scheherazade Foundation. [6] [7] The property consists of a mansion with thirty rooms, built around an interior garden or riad. [6] [7]
According to Jason Webster in the Financial Times , Tahir Shah, who has previously written about his time in The Caliph's House , "hired artisans and craftsmen from across Morocco to work on fabulous zellij fountains, stucco screens with geometric Islamic designs, and intricately carved wooden Berber doorways." [7]
In July 2021, The Scheherazade Foundation launched a crowdfunding appeal [8] so that they could repatriate Ethiopian artefacts looted by British troops from Ethiopia in East Africa in 1868, following the Battle of Magdala. [9] The crowdfunding enabled the foundation to purchase several items, including an imperial shield, handwritten Ethiopian religious texts, crosses, and a set of beakers, from a UK auction house and private dealers in Europe. [9] [10]
On 8 September 2021, the items were presented to the Ethiopian Ambassador, Teferi Melesse Desta by the foundation's chief executive officer, Tahir Shah, at a ceremony at London's Athenaeum Club. [2] [10] [11] [12] The embassy would then return the artefacts to the Ethiopian ministry of culture in the following weeks, the religious pieces being offered to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the rest most likely destined for the National Museum in the capital, Addis Ababa. [12] [13]
In a report in the Smithsonian Magazine , Dr. Alula Pankhurst, a member of Ethiopia's National Heritage Restitution Committee expressed hope that The Scheherazade Foundation's efforts would lead to further restitution initiatives, "especially at a time when retaining artefacts, notably human remains such as those of Prince Alemayehu in Windsor Chapel or sacred objects such as the holy Tabot Arks of the Covenant in the British Museum is becoming increasingly anachronistic, irrelevant and embarrassing." [12]
The Scheherazade Foundation aims to repatriate more Ethiopian artefacts, and a reporter for Returning Heritage expressed the opinion that there is also a strong case "for returning the eleven sacred tabots, concealed within the vaults of the British Museum." [14] [15]
Several attempts have been made in the past to get the British Museum to repatriate artefacts in its possession, but the museum had argued that it "is forbidden by the British Museum Act of 1963 to restitute objects in its collection". [16] However, a new legal opinion commission by the Scheherazade Foundation and drawn up by Samantha Knights QC points out that the 1963 Act "has a provision that allows disposal of objects 'unfit to be retained' [15] [16] and that can be disposed 'without detriment to the interests of students'", and that since the artefacts have been kept in the museum's vaults for the past 150 years, without allowing their study, copying or photography, the artefacts are of "no apparent use or relevance to the museum" and would therefore "fall within this category." [16]
On the basis of this new legal opinion, a letter was drawn up by the Scheherazade Foundation and sent to the trustees of the British Museum asking for the return of the eleven wood and stone tabots held there. [15] [16] Signatories to the appeal include seven members of the House of Lords including former deputy chief whip Don Foster, Baron Foster of Bath; [15] actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry; actor Rupert Everett; author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay; former British Ambassador to Ethiopia Sir Harold Walker, and retired Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. [15] [16] In a statement about the appeal, the museum said that "These documents need to be reviewed and addressed with full consideration, and more time is required before this can be looked at by trustees." [16]
In November 2021, Reuters confirmed that the artefacts acquired by The Scheherazade Foundation had been successfully returned to Ethiopia, and Ethiopia's tourism minister, Nasise Challa reported that, in addition, "we have started negotiations with the British Museum to bring back 12 tabots". [17]
Tahir Shah comes from a family tradition of writers and storytellers, and he has studied traditional "teaching stories" for many years. [6] These stories contain layers of deeper meaning, and Shah likens them to eating a fruit: "a pleasant experience that also contains a form of nutrition." [6] One of the Scheherazade Foundation's main aims is to publish and disseminate these traditional tales, and also to host a storytelling festival at their headquarters, Dar Khalifa. [6]
The Scheherazade Foundation is in the process of publishing a number of books on stories and storytelling:
* The Secrets of Scheherazade, Scheherazade Foundation Publishing, 2022, ISBN 978-1-915311-01-6
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. The British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge.
The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and now held in the British Museum. The majority of the sculptures were created in the 5th century BCE under the direction of sculptor and architect Phidias.
The Iraq Museum is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq, a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their national museums; The Iraq Museum's name is inspired by the name of the British Museum, however. The Iraq Museum contains precious relics from the Mesopotamian, Abbasid and Persian civilizations. It was looted during and after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Despite international efforts, only some of the stolen artifacts have been returned. After being closed for many years while being refurbished, and rarely open for public viewing, the museum was officially reopened in February 2015.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the acceptance of Christianity by the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 49.8 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches.
The National Museum of Afghanistan is a two-story building located across the street from the Darul Aman Palace in the Darulaman area of Kabul, Afghanistan. It was once considered to be one of the world's finest museums. There have been reports about expanding the museum or building a new larger one.
The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. Collectively, the objects form the best examples of Benin art and were created from the thirteenth century by artists of the Edo people. The plaques, which in the Edo language are called Ama, depict scenes or represent themes in the history of the Kingdom. Apart from the plaques, other sculptures in brass or bronze include portrait heads, jewelry, and smaller pieces.
Tabot is a Ge'ez word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Biblical Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of Orthodox Tewahedo Christians in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church. Tabot can also refer to a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. The word tsellat refers only to a replica of the Tablets, but is less commonly used.
Amba Mariam is a village in central Ethiopia. Formerly known as Magdala or Magdalena during the reign of Emperor Tewodros II (1855-1868). Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, Amba Mariam has a longitude and latitude of 11°12′N39°17′E.
The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, then often referred to by the anglicized name Theodore, imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to force the British government to comply with his requests for military assistance. The punitive expedition launched by the British in response required the transportation of a sizeable military force hundreds of kilometres across mountainous terrain lacking any road system. The formidable obstacles to the action were overcome by the commander of the expedition, General Robert Napier, who captured the Ethiopian capital, and rescued all the hostages.
The Battle of Magdala was the conclusion of the British Expedition to Abyssinia fought in April 1868 between British and Abyssinian forces at Magdala, 390 miles (630 km) from the Red Sea coast. The British were led by Robert Napier, while the Abyssinians were led by Emperor Tewodros II.
Repatriation is the return of the cultural property, often referring to ancient or looted art, to their country of origin or former owners.
Tahir Shah is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent.
Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict. The term "looted art" reflects bias, and whether particular art has been taken legally or illegally is often the subject of conflicting laws and subjective interpretations of governments and people; use of the term "looted art" in reference to a particular art object implies that the art was taken illegally.
AFROMET is an organization seeking the return of looted treasures to Ethiopia.
Benin art is the art from the Kingdom of Benin or Edo Empire (1440–1897), a pre-colonial African state located in what is now known as the Southern region of Nigeria. Primarily made of cast bronze and carved ivory, Benin art was produced mainly for the court of the Oba of Benin – a divine ruler for whom the craftsmen produced a range of ceremonially significant objects. The full complexity of these works can be appreciated through the awareness and consideration of two complementary cultural perceptions of the art of Benin: the Western appreciation of them primarily as works of art, and their understanding in Benin as historical documents and as mnemonic devices to reconstruct history, or as ritual objects. This original significance is of great importance in Benin.
DejazmatchAlemayehu Simyen Tewodoros, was the son of Emperor Tewodros II and Empress Tiruwork Wube of Ethiopia.
Safia Nafisa Shah, now Safia Thomas, is a British writer, editor, television news producer and member of the Afghan-Indian Shah family.
Located on the strategic crossroads of Iran, India, China and Central Asia, Afghanistan boasts a diverse cultural and religious history. The soil is rich with archaeological treasures and art that have for decades come under threat of destruction and damage. Archaeology of Afghanistan, mainly conducted by British and French antiquarians, has had a heavy focus on the treasure filled Buddhist monasteries that lined the silk road from the 1st c. BCE – 6th c. AD. Particularly the ancient civilizations in the region during the Hellenistic period and the Kushan Empire. The world's oldest-known oil paintings, dating to the 7th c. AD, were found in caves in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley. The valley is also home to the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Sir Richard Rivington Holmes, KCVO was a British archivist and courtier.
Dar Khalifa, or The Caliph's House, is a large, historical landmark and private home in walled grounds. It is located in Ain Diab, an affluent suburb of Casablanca that was also host to a sprawling shanty town until the area was redeveloped. Constructed in a traditional Moroccan style, with numerous "riads", or garden courtyards, the property extends to some 5000 square metres, and is situated on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic shore. As its name suggests, the mansion was once owned by a wealthy Khalif or ruler.
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