ABSTRACT
Building on the previous discussions, this chapter focuses on the development of the concept of sūq-ness in post-Islamic Arabia. The chapter does so by examining shifts in Arabia’s urban planning strategies during the early and mid 20th century, relating them to a similar shift in the region’s overall literary and media products, which show evident signs of historization, nostalgia and conflicts. Using an array of evidence sets, such as urban maps, architectural examples, literature products, a puppet show, a social survey and interviews, the chapter concludes that, despite an evident formal difference between pre-Islamic, Islamic and post-Islamic Arabia’s modes of building, the current understanding of sūq-ness is still founded on the duality of fadaā/tareeq. Yet, the chapter explains that the meaning of this duality today signals the presence of dialectic tensions between an Arab’s imagined understanding of history and modern-day realities.
