ABSTRACT
The military as an object of societal veneration, and militarism as a form of nationalist representation are subjects of this chapter. It investigates the staging of militarism in memorials, museums and commemorative ceremonies. The chapter returns to these forms of nationalist representation to argue that the rise of the importance of the military in Middle Eastern societies, and the accompanying rise of militarism, added to the increasing vulgarity of Arab nationalist discourses in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It analyzes the Cairo and Damascus Panoramas. The Panorama as a genre of monumental painting emerged in the nineteenth century as a radically new art form that combined a high degree of artistic faculty with a successful business model. The structures in Damascus and Cairo are quite similar in their basic set up. A statue of the Syrian military commander Yusuf al-'Azma adorns a central square in Damascus of the same name.
