MUSLIM HERITAGE
When the Call to Prayer Ushered in Each Sunny Andalusian Day The Met Museum’s spectacular exhibition takes us to Spain, 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA
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n Aug. 30, New York’s Met Museum invited the world to witness Muslim Spain, which is on a visita corta there until Jan. 30, 2022. “Spain, 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith,” the meticulously curated exhibition being displayed at The Cloisters in uptown Manhattan, takes your breath away. While viewing it, you travel back to the time when Muslims were the world’s sole superpower. And they used this might to rapidly spread justice, peace and equality within the known world. In 711, a tiny Muslim force landed at Jabal Tariq (Gibraltar), defeated the Visigoth king Roderic at the decisive Battle of Gaudete, and then swiftly overran the entire Iberian Peninsula. Six years later, they crossed the Pyrenees and poured into Septimania — a historical region in modern-day southern France — that had been ceded to the Visigoths’ king Theodoric II in 462. By 759 they had captured several areas in Gaul — modern-day France — and
incorporated them into the newly established province of Andalusia, marking the caliphate’s new northern borders. This rapid conquest transformed a decaying land into the fabled Andalusia — a center of learning, a flourishing culture of art, architecture and opulent living. Impressed by Islam’s message, most of the local Visigoths converted and contributed new ideas to Islamic architecture, such as the famous Iberian horseshoe arch, and then spearheaded the establishment of the Emirate of Sicily. The Muslims’ 800-year rule of Andalusia also provided a haven to the historically persecuted Jews, who were now allowed to develop their education, culture and religious traditions in peace. To this day, this period marks Judaism’s golden age. This exhibition showcases articles that give a brief glimpse into Andalusia’s magnificence, which was light years ahead of its European neighbors. As you enter the exhibition, you are wowed by a 13th-century
The province of al-Andalus in 750 (source: Wikipedia)
30 ISLAMIC HORIZONS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
Bifolium from the Andalusian Pink Quran. ca. 13th century. Country of Origin Spain Ink, gold, silver, and opaque watercolor on paper H. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm)W. 19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm) ( (c) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Friends of Islamic Art Gifts, 2017) .
Tiraz Fragment. Fustat, Egypt, 11th century Linen and silk; tapestry weave. ( (c) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Rogers Fund, 1927).
Bifolium from the Andalusian Pink Quran. Copied in the elegant Maghribi script and featuring gold verse counters and prostration marks to guide the reader, this two-page spread was part of a luxurious, multivolume Quran made for an elite Andalusian patron. Its distinct pink paper, used at a time when most fine Andalusian copies of the Quran were still written on parchment, was milled in Jativa, a town near Valencia that was celebrated for its fine paper production. Two 12th-century marble gravestone fragments from Almeria are also on display. The outline of a horseshoe arch, its cinched curve accented by delicate leaves, is visible on the first fragmentary grave marker. The single arch suggests the form of a mihrab, a
