An Exhibition
of Palace and Mosque
By Syed Amir, PhD
Bethesda, MD
For sports fans, Sunday, February
6, 2005, was the most important day of the year;
as the country came to a virtual standstill and
millions gathered with friends and family to watch
the National Football League finals on television.
For me, it was significant for a different reason.
It was the last day of the exhibition of the Islamic
Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
D.C., which had been running for six months. It
was also the last opportunity to see and savor
120 masterpieces, selected from the vast collection
of Islamic art belonging to the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London. The museum is currently undergoing
renovation and is in the midst of adding a new
Gallery of Islamic Art, supported by the Saudi
philanthropist and billionaire, Mr. Mohammed Jameel,
and named after him.
This temporary closure of the Gallery at the London
museum made it possible for some of its rare Islamic
treasures to be shipped and loaned to other countries
where they are being showcased in special exhibitions.
The first stop in this journey was the National
Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition has
now moved to Fort Worth, Texas, from where it
will go on to Tokyo, Japan, before returning to
England next year.
Although the press reports were indicating that
the exhibition was attracting thousands of visitors,
I was hoping that the sports event would keep
many people at home, enabling people like me to
view the exhibits at a slow pace and in a more
leisurely fashion. Unfortunately, this hope proved
illusory.
The main halls of the Gallery were crowded even
at an early hour on Sunday, reflecting the great
interest of the American people in Islamic civilization
that has grown, paradoxically, out of the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center. As is the case
for all exhibitions sponsored by the National
Gallery, a great deal of thought had been devoted
to presenting the art specimens in the most pleasing
setting. The effect was stunning, but not surprising,
since the National gallery employs highly professional
artists who excel in decorative skills.
The exhibition, funded by the Saudi Ambassador
to this country, was divided into four sections,
each devoted to a specific theme. Calligraphy
has always been prized as a sublime art in Islamic
societies, because of its association with the
Qur’an and other religious texts. It also
occupied a prominent status in this show. The
exhibition contained some spectacular specimens
of Islamic Calligraphy; among them were fabrics
with quotations from the Qur’an that once
decorated the palace walls of Muslim rulers long
ago. Of special interest was a beautiful blue
glazed tile with a Qur’anic inscription,
an exquisite specimen of Central Asian craftsmanship,
taken from the tomb of Buyanquli Khan (1360 AD),
Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Also on display in a glass
case, was an illuminated copy of the Qur’an
dating back to 17th century. An assortment of
astrolabes and pocket watches testified to importance
given to knowing the prayers times and the direction
of Mecca.
Another section of the hall housed art objects
that used to embellish mosques and royal palaces.
Among them was a candlestick made of brass with
silver inlay, and an attractive lamp of enameled
and gilded glass that once hung in a mosque in
Cairo. Both are believed to have been made in
Egypt or Syria around the fourteenth century.
A specially striking specimen of religious relics
was a large wooden Minbar, used centuries ago
for delivery of Friday sermons. This six-meter
tall structure was adorned with delicate carvings
and fine geometric patterns. It was built in Egypt
and bore the name of the Mamluk Sultan Qa’itbay
who ruled the country from 1468-1496.
One of the most intriguing objects on display
was an emerald glass beaker which was made in
Syria or Egypt in the 13th century but, for some
mysterious reasons found its way to Edenhall,
a house in North of England, nearly a century
after it was made. Sometime in its history, it
seems to have become an object of superstition.
According to legend, people living around Edenhall
in medieval times started to believe that the
glass vessel was brought to their village by fairies,
who had cast a spell on it. If this cup ever got
broken, the story went, Edenhall would also be
destroyed. The prophecy did not materialize, however.
The house was demolished a long time ago, but
the beaker survived and generated a lot of interest
at the Art show.
Timothy Stanley, the senior curator at the Victoria
and Albert Museum, who came to Washington to organize
and launch the art show, described the theme of
the exhibition as follows: “It is not merely
a collection of marvelous treasures, rather it
tells a story of a whole civilization.”
He explained that the common belief that Islamic
art never portrays human or animal figures is
only partly true. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, for example, two powerful dynasties
ruled the Muslim world, the Ottoman in the west
and the Safvids in Iran. While sharing a common
cultural heritage, each promoted its own version
of artwork, often in contrasting styles. Some
of these differences in philosophy could be observed
at the exhibition, especially in the written documents.
While the Ottoman literary manuscripts avoided
figural imagery, those created during the Safvid
rule had no such restraints. A page taken from
the 16th century Iranian manuscript by Nizami
“Romances of Khusraw and Shirin” vividly
and in bright colors depicted the figure of Khusraw
rescuing Shirin from a lion.
The Islamic Art exhibition offered important insights
into the process by which contemporary advanced
civilizations benefited from mutual interactions.
In the fifteenth century, the quality of pottery
being produced in Ottoman Turkey was very poor.
Sultan Muhammad II, the Conqueror, decided to
patronize the ceramic production in his realms.
His decision stimulated much interest in and demand
for high-quality pottery. The Chinese at the time
were far ahead in producing high-quality porcelain.
The Ottoman craftsmen acquired the technology
from them, and soon were producing white ceramic
pieces that rivaled or even excelled those made
in China.
One such specimen, a frit bowel with under glaze
colors, was on display at the show. The Turkish
technology was eventually adopted and copied by
the Europeans. By the time it returns to London,
the exhibition would have been visited by millions
on two continents. It would have served a noble
purpose if it succeeded in communicating some
of the richness and diversity of the Islamic civilization
to a population exposed largely to stories of
Islamic extremism.
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