Colonial observers repurposed Islamic architecture for surveillance purposes.

Evidence

The minaret presented itself similarly to even the most respectable European as a viewing tower, from which to sneak a panoptic gaze over a Muslim town. ‘The mobbing I got at Shoomlo’, complained Jeremy Bentham on his visit to the Middle East, ‘only for taking a peep at the town from a thing they call a minaret … has cancelled any claims they might have had upon me for the dinner they gave me at the divan, had it been better than it was.’ — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 109

Categorization

• SHARE: Jeremy Bentham’s annoyed quote about ‘mobbing’ on the minaret is exactly the kind of deadpan archival gem a theorist of surveillance and colonialism would savor.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s panopticon and Mitchell’s broader argument. Bentham, the panopticon’s inventor, literally trying to use a minaret as a surveillance tower is a striking historical irony.