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Qur’anic Illuminations
A Spiritual Tour-de-Force in the Book Fair
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Looking at the twelve masterworks of the digitally recreated Qur’anic manuscripts, the essence of Islamic art can be seen by the eye and heard by the ear
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During
the showing of the twelve double openings of recreated Mamluk
Qur’anic volumes in the exhibition Splendours of Qur’an Illumination,
one’s heart is given to waste, and revived in a world of heart-stirring light.
Going through these works, although an awe-inspiring and bewildering experience,
was no doubt a rare moment of spiritual clarity. Still, it took a while for the
labyrinth of entangled half-emotions and half-ideas to settle down. Once it did,
a state of clarity was passed on to the heart and the mind-after the soul.
The
digital recreations were presented by a team of experts from the Thesaurus
Islamicus Foundation at a Cairo press conference on October 3. The presenters
showed a perfectionist commitment to the preservation of our Islamic artistic
legacy. The great news is that these works will be formally presented to the
public during the celebration of Arabic culture at this year’s Frankfurt Book
Fair, by the esteemed and eminent Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ali Gom`aa. During the
press conference I made sure to allow myself a moment of daydreaming, watching
the magnificent work on the manuscripts of Islamic Scripture. I hope that the
people in the fair will feel this spiritual moment, as short and oceanic is it
is.
I
was taken by the immediate visual impact. This immediacy is never encountered
with any other artistic production (religious or otherwise), whether classical
or modern, or even with the provocative post-modern genre for that matter.
Before modern art pieces, one stands a while trying to interpret, receive (and
even sometimes “decipher”) the artistic inventive message or visionary mood.
The established relation is a one way cluster, a continuum of the work unfolding
itself. With Islamic art, one is gravitated instantly inside the work, not
otherwise.
On
glancing at the tour de force of illuminations (or ornamental designs) and
calligraphy, the time the experience takes to go from contingency and
proximity-in creating a parallel impression-to an immanent and actual
“state” is a moment of finitude. We could draw near to why such a state is
experienced, even though drawing near a complete understanding of it is next to
impossible.
The
reason that such works of Islamic art, as asymbolic, dignified, and elevating as
they are, are able to create such a state is quite simple nonetheless. Unlike
any other art form it is not interested in an idea, in a feeling, per se. What
Islamic art is, as this magnificent artistic labor has shown, is simply not a
picturesque capturing of a moment-which is time-or a figure, human, or
otherwise,-a space-with graceful hands and artful colors; it is not the
confession of an emotional idea through abstract formation and corresponding
tonalities; it is not an expression of an experience translated into art stuff and
material; it is the experience itself.
Looking
at the twelve masterworks of the digitally recreated Qur’anic manuscripts, the
essence of Islamic art can be seen by the eye and heard by the ear. Despite all
surroundings-the inescapable and ihsani (perfectionist) exquisiteness of the
illuminations, motifs, the pure gold embellishing, calligraphy, printing,
material, texture, and presentation-the essence reveals itself: a spiritual
state. Only in Islam, the essence of the faith itself-experiencing God,
scholarship, and practice-is also spiritual. Stay away from the mere textual
argument that figuring is prohibited in Islam for it may lead to idolatry; it is
the commitment to the oneness, absoluteness, and undividedness of the experience
which is the heart of the matter; the legalistic ruling is to serve that end.
The
allure of the work-first the illuminations and, second, the calligraphy-is an
expression of the essence of the state. Although one could easily be bewildered
by the conflicting tides and currents of impression of that state, still, if one
can capture that sense of familiarity and settling down, and hang on to them,
the reality of the state unfolds. There are many lights that guide one under
this elevating sky of exaltation.
The
Islamic artist has always been anonymous; unlike his modern-day counter part, he
puts his work before himself. Also it is narrated that all such workers carried
their work in a spiritual mode. The names of the illuminists and geometricians
were not revealed! Still, what authentic, intrinsic, and, to say the least,
meticulous attention to fine details and how all that effortlessly and softly
transforms into loftiness and a kind of euphoric glorification-all that was a
great indication. The repetition of the patterns was more than a good hint.
The
essence of Islamic art, as the marvelous work manifests itself, is a state, a
spiritual, a mystical one of longing. In this, the state is familiar; for it is
a moment of completion. A completion with something missing, desired. It is the
longing of the contingent human to the absolute divine, and what a primal state
that is. It is a state of “remembrance,” not distraction and Dionysian
wastefulness. The prowess that the designs reflect is an aesthetic expression of
all such airs. The repetition is an honest and committed human concern, exactly
like in dhikr: the invocation of the remembrance of Allah, majestic in His
praise. An endless and cyclic world loops and orbits in the remembrance of the
divine and in the speed of longing that take one’s spirit out of its body.
As
for calligraphy, if the illumination is the atmospheric light by which the word
divine is derived, the calligraphy is the tone with which those words are
communicated. Islamic calligraphy reached its cardinal height of sophistication
and gracefulness because it was created to deal with the kalamih, the word of
Allah. As in Islam the Qur’an is actually the word of Allah. Dealing with
Islamic Scripture was the auspicious act of living those words. By living the
words, the soul pours the essence in tidal motion to the hand, where, as is
known amongst traditional calligraphers, the wheezing of the pen is like a
prayer. It is the bleeding (and pleading) of a soul agitated by the intensity of
longing in ink, instead of blood. Perhaps this drives home the central point
about Islamic art, the state it is performed in. It is a direct expression of
both content enchantment, as well as blissful intoxication.
Muslim
craftsmen, and even poets, used to perform their arts-be it architecture,
calligraphy, recitation, illumination, or pottery-in a spiritual mood, where
dhikr was invoked. Their works are fruits of what they planted in their spirits,
not just a mental state to be achieved or assumed to be reached by the human
mind. Such works of Islamic art are-unlike abstract works of art, which are an
attempt to capture a mental mirage image-the fruit watered by perpetual
spiritual works and concerns. The artistic works of the spirit are immortal
novas in the sky of human life.
*
Tarek A. Ghanem is a staff writer and
editor of the Contemporary Issues page of IslamOnline.net. He is specialized in
comparative politics and contemporary Islam. You can reach him at t.ghanem@islam-online.net
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