Territorial Presence

Abstract

“Territorial Presence” argues that the Zaytun apparition—which was a national image of Christian-Muslim unity in 1968—transformed into a sectarian image of Christian-Muslim enmity in 2009. This transmutation in the saintly apparition's meaning originated in territorial contests over churches and mosques in one of Giza's more industrial neighborhoods. By unpacking the phenomenon of “collective apparitions,” this chapter further reveals how modernizing epistemologies of visual objectivity organize differences in Muslim versus Christian witnessing. The key principle governing this sensible form of Christian-Muslim difference is majority-minority identitarianism.