Category Archives: Art

New Orientalism at a German University?

Contemporary Art, Iran, Islamic Law, Islamophobia 101, Orientalist Images, Qur'an, Shi'a

By Andreas Neumann, Erlangen Center for Islam & Law in Europe (EZIRE)

Recently, at one of the many German universities of excellence (names do not matter), students and other citizens were invited to a lecture with the title: “Stoning: a Non-Islamic tradition.” The hosts were the Seminar for Arab and Islamic Studies and the Institute of Criminal Sciences. The picture represented here is taken from the poster hanging all over the campus and also in the city. At its center, you see a huge hand on the point of casting a crude edged stone in the direction of the observer. In the foreground, there is an olive branch. The colors in the background evoke the national flag of Iran flying in wind. A short analysis might be fruitful. The picture is an example of contemporaneous stereotyped thinking and also transports a message contrary to the requirements of reason.

The hand, disambiguated by the context, symbolizes the gruesome act. It is combined with the enlarged olive branch. The olive branch was a symbol of peace in Greek and Roman antiquity, when it also was worn as an adornment by brides. Retrospectively, it was associated with Noah who sent out a dove which returned with an olive leaf in its beak (which became a branch in the Vulgate). This sign indicated that the water was receding. There might exist an older model of this image, since the association of the dove, the olive branch or even the rainbow with peace does not follow conclusively from the text. The Quran has not taken it over in its frequent references to the Genesis version of the story of the Flood (also see the account by Heinrich Speyer, Die biblischen Erzählungen im Qoran, Gräfenhainichen 1931, pp. 89-115). Nevertheless, the olive tree (by the way, in German more often called “Ölbaum”, oil tree) is cited several times in the Quran, especially in the beautiful verse of the light, Q 24:35, where the blessed olive tree in question is characterized as neither Eastern nor Western (cf. Zechariah 4:3-11). The olive branch has become an international symbol of peace and is represented on the emblem of the United Nations, where two of them symmetrically embrace a map of the world. Continue reading New Orientalism at a German University? →

Aesop’s Fabulous Camels (and an Ass) #2

Animals, Books You Should Read, camels, Lithographs, Orientalism


Aesop’s Fables, 1888, p. 132

One of the joys of returning home to where I was born is going through the books that my grandmother once owned. In a previous post I mentioned an 1888 edition of Aesop’s Fables, translated by George Fyler Townsend. In leafing through the fables I found several that talk about camels and one that refers to an “Arab.”

In this post I provide three of the fables, Continue reading Aesop’s Fabulous Camels (and an Ass) #2 →

Aesop’s Fabulous Camels #1

Animals, Books You Should Read, Lithographs


One of the joys of returning home to where I was born is going through the books that my grandmother once owned. One of these is an 1888 edition of Aesop’s Fables, translated by George Fyler Townsend, as shown in the frontispiece above. The cover, which is dark brown, notes it is a “Caxton Edition” and includes a marvelous quote from Thomas Carlyle: “May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenicians, or whoever it was that invented books.” I suppose today we must add: “And curses upon the creator of the Internet idea of an e-book.” As noted in the preface, not all of these tales date back to Aesop; some indeed were thought up by Christian monks in the Middle Ages. According to the same preface no book, apart from the Bible, had a wider circulation in the era just prior to the printing press.

After commenting that these fables have been translated into languages, East and West, the preface continues by saying that they “have been read, and will be read, for generations, alike by the Jew, Heathen, Mohammedan, and Christian” (p. xviii). In leafing through the fables I found several that talk about camels and one that refers to an “Arab.” Aesop might be surprised to find these, but since it is all Greek to me I am not sure how fluent he might have been with the unflappable ship of the desert.

In this post I provide two of the fables, with the rest to come in a future post. Continue reading Aesop’s Fabulous Camels #1 →

The World Was His Canvas: The Legacy of M.F. Husain

Conferences and Talks, Contemporary Art, India


The World Was His Canvas: The Legacy of M.F. Husain
Remembering “the Picasso of India”

By Bruce B. Lawrence, Religion Dispatches, June 9, 2011

Maqbul Fida Husain, known as M.F. Husain, was India’s most famous, and its most infamous, contemporary painter. Often labeled the Picasso of India, his life and work spanned the 20th century and inched into the 21st. He produced over 30,000 paintings, some of which have sold at auction for over $1.5 million.

I organized a conference to celebrate his 95th birthday in Doha last September. It was titled (as Husain himself had requested) “The World is My Canvas.” Husain came back from London, where he also has a home and studio, but as an active participant, not a mere observer. He talked, he doodled, he joked, he even posed for a group photo.

M.F. Husain remained a dynamic, ceaseless explorer of art, life, and beauty until a couple of weeks before his death in London on Thursday June 9. In 2003, to celebrate his 88th birthday, he produced 88 oils across four Indian cities. “After open-heart surgery they said: ‘take it easy, and only paint miniatures,’” he scoffed, referring to an operation he had in 1988.

Yet controversy embroiled him from the mid-’90s because he loved, and painted from, India. Politically-minded Hindu partisans objected to his portrayal of women. He painted not just women but Hindu goddesses, and he painted them as they have been painted for centuries: unclad. But secular Indian courts allowed advocates for the Hindu right to bring a case against Husain. He was accused of causing harm to the sensibilities of others. He faced not one case but multiple cases, along with vandalism of his art and threats against both himself and those close to him. Soon after his victorious 88th birthday, he moved from India to the Gulf; first to Dubai, and then after 2007 to Doha, the capital of Qatar. Continue reading The World Was His Canvas: The Legacy of M.F. Husain →

Making room for Hafiz

Contemporary Art, Iran, Lebanon, Poetry



Spiritus, by Sami Rifai, Lebanon, Micheal-Angelo white Marble, 133x40x40 cmby, 1988

Ghazal 98: News From Abroad
by Hafiz, translated by A. Z. Foreman

Last night, the wind brought wind of one I love who’d gone away.
I too shall yield my heart unto the wind, now. Come what may.

At length my love has come to this: I can confide in none
but blazing lightnings every night and dawn winds every day.

Defenseless in your deep curled locks, and out of me, my heart
never once said “Let me recall the body where I lay”

Today, I see my friends were wise to counsel against lovefall.
Elate my counselors’ souls, O Lord, for all the truth they say.

Remembering you, my heart was bloodstruck every time wind blew
open the rosebud’s robe out on the grass in gentle play.

My weakened being leaked out through my fingertips till dawn,
whose wind blew hope of you, and brought the life back to my clay.

Your spirit of good will, Hafiz, will earn you what you yearn for.
When good-willed men cry out, all souls are ransomed to obey.

Tabsir Redux: The Book Of Death #28

Contemporary Art, Literature, Poetry


[Illustration: “Refugees” by Palestinian artisit Ibrahim Hijazy, 1996.]

by George El-Hage

Today, the seventh day of the month of Death, I decided to end our relationship. I decided to pack my suitcase and leave. Everything in our spring-like room I left for you: the velvet drapes, old books, notebooks of memories and red roses. All the silk pillows, and the ivory chairs, and the chandelier of carnations, the big bed in the other corner of the room remain for you. I took with me one bleeding suitcase which is my heart. It was so filled with surprise and sorrow that I did not have room for one little pencil. I left empty-handed except for an armful of ashes. I held dejection to my breast, the harvest of a full year of love. I embraced it with anguish and washed its forehead with dew from my eyes. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: The Book Of Death #28 →

Illuminated Verses: The Poetries of the Islamic World

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Folklore and Proverbs, Languages, Miniatures, Poetry, Yemen


Illuminated Verses explores some of the rich and varied poetic traditions of the Islamic world. For a schedule of panels, click here (and scroll to bottom to download pdf of program).

Here is the program for Saturday, May 17, 2011:

Detailed Schedule

•9:00-9:15am
Welcome by Poets House Executive Director Lee Briccetti and City Lore Executive Director Steve Zeitlin

•9:20-9:55am
Illuminated Verses: the Poetries of the Islamic World
An opening panel setting up large questions and contexts with Reza Aslan and Michael Sells.

•10: 00-11:00am
Origins and Orality: the Poetry of the Arabian Peninsula
An examination of the poetries of the Arabian Peninsula from the Golden Age to contemporary oral tribal poetry. With anthropologists Najwa Adra and Steve Caton and literary scholar Suzanne Stetkevych. Continue reading Illuminated Verses: The Poetries of the Islamic World →

Orientalism: Veiled and Unveiled

Egypt, Literature, Orientalism, Orientalist Art


Mahmud Saʻid,The Girls of Bahari; and an untitled portrait by Abdelal Hassan (2000; current location unknown)

[Note: The following is an excerpt from a fascinating discussion of Orientalist art by the philosopher, cultural critic and poet Pino Blasone, whose knowledge of both European and Arab cultures brings a fresh lens to the discussion of the genre. The article is entitled “Orientalism: Veiled and Unveiled” and is available in its entirety online.]

In an online weekly supplement to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram (17-23 May 2007, Issue No. 845), we can read an interesting article by Mohammed Salmawy, entitled“Dialogues of Naguib Mahfouz: A passion for the Arts”. Notoriously Naguib Mahfouz, or Nagib Mahfuz, is the best Egyptian novelist of the 20th century, died in 2006 and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. Salmawy reports and comments a late interview to him. In particular, let us consider a passage from that: “My first exposure to the plastic arts was in the late 1920s… I remember reading an article by Al-Ê»Aqqad about an artist called Mahmud SaÊ»id. This was kind of unusual, for art wasnʼt really big back then. So for someone like Al-Ê»Aqqad to write a whole article about an artist was a bit of a shock. After that, I learned that SaÊ»id came from a prominent family and had a brilliant career in the judiciary, a career that he abandoned to dedicate his life to art. From then on I made a point of going to all SaÊ»idʼs exhibitions. […] Some of SaÊ»idʼs paintings are still imprinted on my mind: The Girls of Bahari, The Liquorice Merchant, and those splendid portraits of countryside women”. Continue reading Orientalism: Veiled and Unveiled →