When he was an undergraduate, Stefan Maneval's Professor, Dr. Ulreke Freitag, had been doing research on the history of Jeddah: “She managed to get an invitation from the Ministry of Higher Education to bring a group of German students here for twelve days, and we visited Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh,” explained Maneval. “She knew that I was interested in architecture and material culture, and when I was here, I really fell in love with the beautiful architecture in the Old Town of Jeddah. My main interest was to find out how daily life was lived in these houses in the past. So I did that for my Master's Degree.” In his thesis, Maneval also wrote about the changes in residential architecture in Jeddah in the 20th Century: “I compared the old houses in Jeddah to what followed after the oil boom. I went from those old houses to the very simple concrete buildings in the fifties and sixties. Then in the seventies, the houses started to become more elaborate and more luxurious. So I am also interested in the question of how people live in Jeddah today, and how social life changed during the course of the 20th century – always in terms of residential architecture and public spaces, and so on.” Twenty-nine year old Maneval is from Germany and is currently a Doctoral Student at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Culture and Societies. When he began his Master's Degree, he knew the subject he had chosen was too big to cover in his thesis. “It was only a beginning and a preparation for more detailed and deeper investigation into the subject. There is not much research literature on the history and architecture of Jeddah and it is still a very under -investigated topic. It has not been easy for researchers to get into this country, but it is gradually becoming easier. As a result, there is more scientific interest arising, and there is still so much to discover,” he explained. Our interview took place in one of the offices behind the Bait Nassif in the Old Town and although it was noisy from the sound of construction going on outside, it was a welcome din because it was the sound of renovation. Maneval has also visited other historic towns of the Middle East. “I have been to Sanaa, and I have visited many towns in Syria. I think all of these cities – just as cities and towns in Europe experienced in the past – have problems with the houses decaying, and structural problems are making it difficult to keep the old buildings alive. In Aleppo and Damascus especially, there have been a couple of successful projects to raise awareness of the cultural and architectural heritage and I hope that something like this will happen here in Jeddah.” There are different strands that Maneval follows to collect information he has ensured that he can do this in both Arabic and English: “I studied Arabic for two years at University in Germany, and then during my studies I went to Yemen to take language courses there. I spent a total of about a year there, and then I traveled a lot to Syria and Lebanon, and now Saudi Arabia. So I speak and read and write Arabic,” he said. On this visit he has found much more literature than he had hoped in King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah: “These are mostly unpublished theses of Saudi scholars. Most of the PhD theses are written are in English because these scholars studied for their PhDs in the US and the UK. I think it is more beneficial for them to write in English so that a wider audience can read their work.” Another main source of information is the people themselves. Maneval conducts a lot of interviews. “I try to find a diverse range of people who together will somehow reflect the society of Jeddah,” he explained. “Of course, there are the original Jeddawis who have lived here their entire lives, and their families have been here for generations. Then there are all the people who have moved to the town, and this is a very special element about Jeddah – there are people from all over the world and I also want to know how they see and adapt to this city. I also sit at a certain places for a few hours and watch and write down everything that happens in that place. I select places that I consider relevant, like the Old Town, or new areas in the city, or the Corniche, or Al Hindawiyah.” He went on to describe the character of Al Hindawiyah, a part of Jeddah that he enjoys visiting. “This is just south of the Al-Balad area which was a village in the thirties and forties and then it became part of the town when the town started growing. It is quite a poor area but I like it there because there is a lot of social life taking place in the streets which I don't find, for example, in the northern areas of Jeddah. There are many people there from Africa, but also Yemenis and Saudis. Yesterday, for example, I spoke to a Saudi who comes from a Jeddawi family who moved there in the 1950s, so he has spent all his life in Al Hindawiyah. He knew it when there were only about 50 houses, with a lot of space between them.” Maneval has noticed major changes in family life in tandem with the architectural and environmental changes. “In the past, one extended family lived in the same house, and on different floors of the house. The ground floor was used as the office, storage or for business, so people – often strangers – were entering the houses and doing business on the ground floor. During the pilgrimage, people sometimes stayed in these ground floors so the ground floors were an area that strangers could enter. Then in the fifties, sixties and seventies, people moved out, and step-by-step, sections of these extended families moved to new places. The distances became much larger between two brothers, or a father and an uncle – so that is something that people tell me has changed. Some families now share one plot of land, and extended families live in different houses on that plot. Of course, pilgrims don't enter people's houses any more. In the past, there were many shared spaces in the house, and you made arrangements so that strange men and women didn't meet. The women would stay in a different room, but they were all in the same house. Now, you have something which you could call an ‘inner' and an ‘outer' part of the house. In poorer parts where you don't have that much space, strangers don't usually enter the house at all. Many of these houses have only one or two rooms for the whole family, so then people meet outside in the street. That is also why there is more street life in those quarters.” An element that Maneval particularly enjoys about his visits to Jeddah is walking around the heart of Al-Balad, or Al Hindawiyah and looking at the buildings and talking to people. “I have had very nice conversations and experiences when I have been wandering around taking pictures, or just sitting and taking notes. People come to me and ask what I am doing, show real interest, and help me a lot. Whenever they have free time, they take me around, and try to find people who might be interesting for me to talk to. For example, one evening some of these friends took me to a place where they have table tennis and pool in these streets in Balad. This is something that I really love – after an exhausting day, just to play table tennis in the street in the evening! I play with all different kinds of young guys: one from Chad, another one Saudi, one from Sudan, and some from Yemen – I don't know where some of the others come from.” It will take up to four years for Maneval to complete his PhD. He has been visiting Jeddah for one month a year, but hopes to come twice a year in the future. “I plan to come back in six month's time,” he said, “and then again in a year. My visa has been organized by different people each time, and different ways. This time, the president of my university wrote a letter to the President of King Abdulaziz University asking for a visa. Their architectural professor, Dr. Hisham Mortada, has a vital interest in the old town and in keeping it alive an he supported my application, so it is thanks to him that I am here.” Maneval feels strongly that the Old Town should be preserved but sees the enormity of the problems presented: “The problem is that the people who live here don't own the houses, and the people that own the houses don't live here. These people who live here can't do anything; they have no money, they earn very little, and they don't have the rights because they don't own these houses, so you can't blame the people who live here. This is a treasure right in the middle of the town that is rotting away. You have to get people to come here and see what is there, and show them and tell them how much it is worth. But it is difficult to even get Saudis to this part of the town. When some expats heard that I am doing research on the Old Town, I arranged some tours for them, and for some of them, it was the first time they had been there, although they might have lived here for years. It is a very important part of their history, of the history of this country, of the pilgrimage, and of the people. Perhaps then they would be more proud of this Old Town, and maybe they would then start spending money on the old buildings.”
