Beyond East & West
The migratory trajectories of non-Muslims from the cities explored in the project have not been limited to London, New York and Vienna. Religious and ethnic affiliations as well as trading opportunities have resulted in communities being established in a diverse array of locations, and individuals and families being scattered globally.
Trace the Journeys
Click on a dot and scroll to uncover global migration stories.
Trace the Journeys
Click on a dot and scroll to uncover global migration stories.
Paul Anderson, Co-Investigator: Among the Syrian Jewish diaspora in New York, Arabic melodies are used in religious services as well as celebrations, and since 1985, books of liturgy have been printed following a specifically Aleppine rite. At a Passover service at the Magen David synagogue in Bensonhurst, New York, in 2023, the congregation read from prayer books which specified the distinctively Aleppine aspects of the liturgy. One man recited a portion of the Torah in a way that gave full expression to the Arabic scales. As he took his seat again, he commented “Doing it the Aleppine way”, and asked had I heard the echoes of Quran recitation in his singing? Another Aleppine-born businessman in New York who had left Aleppo as a teenager in the 1980s still used Arabic in some of this commercial interactions within the community. Reflecting on the respect and social status that his father had enjoyed in Aleppo, but not in New York, said “I told my doctor yesterday that on my tombstone I want to put, “from Halab [Aleppo], Syria”, even though it is not my country”.
Vera Skvirskaja, Co-Investigator: The most visible and enduring emotional connection of Bukharan Jews to their cities of origin is represented by ancestral graves and Jewish cemeteries. Different hometown associations have been established in the diaspora (e.g. Fund ‘Tashkent’, Memorial Fund ‘Bukhara’, Fund ‘Kokand’, and so on) to raise funds in global Bukharan diapora for the reconstruction and maintenance of Bukharan Jewish cemeteries in Central Asia. Additionally, some synagogue-based fundraising initiatives are organized within the diaspora for specific Jewish cemeteries. These various fundraising efforts operate alongside the burgeoning individual and organized "cemetery tourism" or cemetery pilgrimage.
Magnus Marsden, Principal Investigator: The non-Muslim inhabitants of Kabul and Herat have played a formative role in connecting these cities to wider regions through commercial and religious networks. They also fashioned the cultural and social dynamics of the particular neighbourhoods in which they lived. In Afghanistan today, the built and intangible of non-Muslim communities helps to maintain an interest amongst younger generations of the complex histories of the country’s cities.
Paul Anderson, Co-investigator: Jews played a significant role in Aleppo’s history prior to their traumatic departure after 1947. Yet Aleppine Jews have generally been omitted from official heritage narratives and practices within Syria. Beyond Syria, Aleppo’s Jewish history has been the focus of heritage organisations in the Syrian Jewish diaspora, principally in New York, and in Israel. The shared social milieu between Jews and Muslims in Aleppo has also been documented in some Arab historical of chronicles of the city and features in some recent memoirs of the city published in the United Arab Emirates.
Magnus Marsden, Principal Investigator: The public perception of migration is all too often shaped by simplistic and reductive images of people fleeing war and conflict or desperately seeking to reach the so-called developed world. This collaboration demonstrates that interactions between artists and anthropologists can make result in both images and ways of interpreting them that are both powerful and striking yet also embedded in more layered forms of analysis informed by an understanding of history and culture.
Moska Najib, Principal Photographer: Working at the intersection of art and research has really opened my eyes to the power of visual storytelling in conveying ideas that might be difficult to articulate with words alone. It also highlights how art can deepen empathy and broaden understanding, making research more real and relatable—it’s no longer just data; it’s human. This interdisciplinary approach encourages a more holistic view of the subject, where data and emotion work together to paint a fuller picture. For me, the big takeaway is clear: blending artistic and academic methods brings a richness and depth to research, helping us understand complex issues in a much more personal and impactful way.
Moska Najib, Principal Photographer: Images freeze time, preserving the experiences, faces, and cultural shifts of communities as they navigate change. These photographs become visual records, offering a window into the realities of migration, displacement, and adaptation, which future generations can study and understand. They document not just events, but the emotional and social landscapes of communities in flux, providing a deeper, more personal layer to history. In this way, photography captures a living history that speaks to both the individual and collective experiences of transition.
Paul Anderson, Co-investigator: Photographs are increasingly central to the formation of community memories and urban archives, especially in contexts of conflict. The period since 2012 seen a proliferation of online archives, both popular and scholarly, of Syrian heritage. Often curated in diaspora, these solicit and display photographs, and memories of everyday life and significant places. Some Syrian Armenians have been active in this domain, supported by foundations in the diaspora. In 2019, a Syrian Armenian in Canada established the Khayr al-Din al-Asadi award for documenting Armenian heritage. In 2020, a private Facebook group entitled Hi Haleb (“Armenian Aleppo”) was established to “gather information about Aleppo…daily life, people's habits, memorable places, shops, workplaces” and photographs are a critical part of this emerging archive.
Moska Najib, Principal Photographer: From a photographer’s perspective, visual representation creates an immediate, emotional connection to the subject. Unlike written or spoken words, images can bypass barriers, instantly conveying the complexities of the migrant experience. Photography reveals the nuances of identity—how it’s negotiated, reconstructed, or preserved amid migration. A single image can capture the delicate balance between belonging and displacement, the fusion of old traditions with new realities, or the quiet strength in facing adversity. This kind of representation humanises the migrant experience, moving it beyond abstract statistics or political rhetoric, and fostering empathy and understanding. Through photography, themes like identity become more tangible and relatable, allowing us to see individuals not as mere statistics, but as people with unique stories, struggles, and triumphs—ultimately deepening our understanding of migration’s complexities.