Experts illuminate a celestial beauty at Louvre Abu Dhabi
THE NATIONAL
By Nick Leech
UAE---The Louvre Abu Dhabi Talking Art Series presents the role of light in the arts and the contribution of Islamic science, in a seminar by Martin Kemp and Sabiha Al Khemir entitled ‘Representation and Symbolism of Light’. It was because of these connections that Dr Al Khemir began Nur: Light in Art and Science from the Islamic World, with a display of three exhibits whose provenance is distinctly hybrid: a 19th-century Jewish Hanukkah lamp from Morocco; a 19th-century Persian panel depicting Christ the teacher, with a book inscribed with “I am the light of the world”, in Coptic and Arabic; and a mosque lamp, similar to Tankizbugha’s, inscribed with part of the 35th verse of the 24th sura of the Quran, the Sura An-Nur, which describes Allah as “the light of heavens and the earth” and “Light upon light”. [link]
By Nick Leech
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| A page from a Quran manuscript on parchment, in Kufic script, with the first three verses of Surah al-Fatir (The Originator), late 9th-early 10th century, probably Kairouan (Tunisia). Musee national d’art islamique de Raqqada, Kairouan |
