Venice Fair Celebrates Islamic Civilization
All praise is due to Allah Lord of the Worlds, the Owner of all of the creation
By Hadi Yahmid, IOL correspondent
ROME - Amid rising Islamophobia in the West, the Italian city of
Venice is playing host to an exhibition celebrating Islam contribution
to Western civilization and arts
"The exhibition highlights cross-fertilization between the West and
Islam to counter war mongering clichés that now make international
headlines," Marie George Nida, an exhibition organizer, told
IslamOnline.net Sunday, October 8.
Organized by the Paris-based Arab World Institute (IMA) in partnership
with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the exhibition, titled
"Venise et l'Orient", was inaugurated in October 3 and will run through
February 18.
"The fair showcases how the Islamic civilization has left its indelible
mark on the West in the Middle Ages," added Nida.
Potteries, oil paintings, carpets, coins, silver plates and wooden
items that were brought to Vince during the Middle Ages stand as a
poignant symbol of cultural exchange between Europe and the Ottoman
Empire.
The fair comes as the West and the Muslim world are experiencing some
of the worst periods of their relation in recent history.
Pope Benedict XVI triggered an international controversy by linking
Islam with violence by quoting a Byzantine emperor at a lecture in his
native Germany.
Danish state TV on Friday, October 6, aired amateur video footage
showing a number of members of the youth wing of the anti-immigrant
Danish People's Party (DPP) at a summer camp in August, drinking,
singing and engaging in a competition to draw humiliating images of
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
In September last year Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons,
including one showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban,
proving Muslim condemnation from all the world over and sparking
protests early this year in which more than 50 people died in Asia,
Africa and the Middle East.
Inspiration
The 250 objects on display show how the Islamic civilization became a
source of inspiration for the Venetians.
A large section of the exhibition shows how the Venetians were inspired
by the Mamelouks and Ottomans.
"It is obvious that the art of oil painting, one of the Venetian
civilization's landmarks, was inspired by the East," Nida said.
Qura'nic verses inscribed on glass lamps and ceramic plates made in
Venice and sold in the East shows how impressed Europe was by the
Islamic calligraphy.
The fair's logo is a computerized photo of the masterpiece painting of
Venetian artist Gentile Bellini, showing the Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II
face-to-face with the Venetian duke Giovanni Mocenigo.
As part of efforts to recognize Islamic contribution to human
civilization, a new wing of Islamic art is to be inaugurated in the
Louvre museum in 2009.
The long-awaited section in the world's largest museum will showcase up
to 10,000 pieces, one of the greatest concentrations of Islamic art in
existence.
Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Walid bin Talal has donated 17 million
euros to construct the section.
The New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Arts and the British Museum
also have departments of Islamic art.
Torpedo
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