Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/782193
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2017 41 This Week A taste of some of the latest releases from the BDL stable THE LATEST IN MELITENSEA FROM BDL BOOKS THE book traces in detail the history of a new Muslim cemetery in Malta, from its inception to its construc- tion and completion in 1873–74. It investigates the process of commissioning and implementing this ar- chitectural project through an intricate set of relation- ships between the colonial authorities in Malta, then a British island-colony in the Mediterranean, and the Ot- toman, Tunisian, and Mo- roccan authorities. It con- siders the key roles played by the various institutional actors and protagonists, in- volved in conceptualising and executing the project, from the Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz I, acting through his political and cultural interlocutor, the Ottoman consul Naoum Duhany, to Emanuele Luigi Galizia, the Maltese architect who designed the cem- etery, and the British colonial authorities who permitted its construction. The author also explores issues relating to the emerging forms of neo-Ottoman architectural representation during the late nineteenth century, as was actively promoted within a Western European cultural context, and in this case, situated on the peripheral edge, far removed from the traditional cosmopolitan urban cent- ers. The Ottoman patronage of an overtly exotic and Orientalist building complex, "exported" to a British colonial outpost in the Mediterranean, gives rise to a series of political and ideological issues. This case study serves to pro- vide broader and revisionary in- sights into the current discourse on Orientalism, not as a closed and binary system, but rather as an open-ended and flexible form of artistic representation. Besides the main analytical text, the book includes several transcripts of original archival documents, old photographs and a comprehensive photo- graphic documentation of the cemetery complex in its pre- sent state. A selection of draw- ings comprising a general plan and elevations of the cemetery, accompany the text and docu- ments. The Pre-Siege Maps of Malta by Albert Ganado and Joseph Schiro' The first separate map of Mal- ta goes back to the last quarter of the fifteenth century which proves the importance of Malta at the centre of the inland sea notwithstand- ing its extremely small size. It was a vital focal point for navigators and a seaward bridge between Sicily and the Barbary States. However, it was only in the sixteenth century that Malta acquired the status of a pawn on the European chessboard. When it became the new seat of the Order of St John in 1530 after its eviction from Rhodes, the island was exposed to frequent raids by Ottoman forces and the Barbary corsairs of the fame of Barbarossa and Dragut. The Malta Map Society thought it fit to promote the publication of a book on all the pre-siege maps of Malta on the same pattern and detail more or less followed in 1994-95 in the opus re- garding the Great Siege of 1565. Hence the launch of the present book which e m b r a c e s all the pre- siege sepa- rate maps of Malta, whether manu- script or printed, as well as the appearance of Malta on the maps of the Mediterranean drawn by Ptolemy in the second century AD, by Al-Idrisi in 1157, and by practically all the cartographers that came after them up to 1564. A couple of weeks ago we met the yellow-browed warbler, a bird that used to be rare but which in recent years has become an annual sighting in Malta. Today we meet a bird – a fellow warbler in fact – whose fortunes in these islands went the reverse direction. While never common, the Dartford warbler used to be seen annually until the 1970s. But all that changed in recent decades and the bird is now very rarely seen. It is normal that species sometimes shift their range, diminishing in areas as they colonise new regions; thanks to climate change this trend has quickened noticeably. The Dartford warbler (bufula tax-xagħri) is a bird of open country with low shrub, such as our garrigue. It's tiny and active, flitting about the shrubs hunting insects and other small invertebrates. Earlier this week the individual pictured above was spotted in northwestern Malta. One hopes it sticks around another week or two for more naturalists to spot it. GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 446 CLEANER WINDOWS: Using newspaper to clean windows works better than a cloth for preventing streaks. For even better results, use a vinegar-and-water solution instead of a chemical cleaner. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text Victor Falzon Photo Aron Tanti EU governments opposed the European Commission's proposal to authorise the first new GM crops for cultivation since 1998, but failed to achieve the necessary majority for the proposal to be formally shelved. Governments voted on a proposal to authorise two new strains of GM maize, and the reauthorisation of the one strain of GM maize that is currently grown in the EU. A majority of national governments rejected the proposal but failed to get the qualified majority necessary to ban the GM crops outright. It is now up to the Commission to decide whether to reject the three crops or table another with governments. Malta abstained in both cases. The European Commission has failed to get political support for GM crops since the biotech industry first tried to push them through in 1998. President Juncker promised to make decisions about GM crops more democratic, and so it is now time for the Commission to reject them once and for all. This saga is distracting us from the real debate we need on how we make farming resilient to climate change, save family farms and stop the destruction of nature. It's time to close our countryside to GM crops and move on. EU governments fail to support GM crops in Europe 543. DARTFORD WARBLER The Ottoman Muslim Cemetery in Malta by Conrad Thake