Islamic Arts ASIAN ART 47 By Lucien de Guise Islamic Arts Diary


Portrait of Fath Ali Shah, Iran, Tehran, around 1850, oil on canvas, Berne, Musée d’histoire


Portrait of a Religious Figure, Abu Turab Ghaffari, Iran, Tehran, circa 1880-1885, colour on paper, Paris, musée du Louvre © Musée du Louvre, dist. RMN-GP / Raphaël Chipault


Damascened steel and gold-inlaid feline, Iran, end of the 19th century, Paris, musée du Louvre © Musée du Louvre, dist. RMN-GP / Hervé Lewandowski


BROW BEATERS Te Qajar era is among the most neglected areas of Islamic art. So much so, the exhibition opening this month at the Louvre-Lens museum is apparently the world’s first retrospective of the subject. All the attention tends to go to earlier dynasties, especially the Safavids; just one ruler, Shah Abbas, had an entire exhibition to himself at the British Museum in 2009. Te Qajars have excited the world


less, but after this bold exhibition they might regain the prestige they had long ago. It’s hard to know how they fell into disfavour. Perhaps the aesthetics of their reign don’t fit either the Persian tradition or the Western innovations that so impressed this outward-looking dynasty. It could also be the heavily rouged ladies and the monobrows that were so voguish at the time. Te beards can also be off-putting to any


Holistic and Artistic


From the pleasure-loving Qajar elite to the serious business of Islamic medicine is not an impossible leap. A huge number of Muslim medical pioneers were from Iran, although not necessarily during Qajar times. Te expression ‘golden age’ comes up often in a comprehensive exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. None of the gilding has come off those distant centuries when Muslims were the great healers and ‘Western medicine’ made most of the world shudder. Te Crusader solution to severe battle wounds was a bath in the strongest vinegar available. Tis remedy horrified Muslim onlookers but was actually more effective than many of the other offerings from the brief Frankish compendium of wellness. Al-Tibb: Healing Traditions in Islamic


Medical Manuscripts does not waste time on comparisons; its remit is an overview of a subject that has rarely been tackled with such thoroughness. By using the collection of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, it has become much more than a catalogue of medical treatises. Tere are artefacts that bring us closer to the flavour of the time in a huge variety of locations. From West Africa to East Asia, there is a multitude of objects. Very few of them are alarming to look at – unlike one of London’s best and most overlooked museums, the Hunterian, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which is currently being renovated. When it reemerges it will no doubt be filled with all the saws and screw-pull devices that are sure to terrify sensitive visitors. Most of the ‘Al-Tibb’ displays are manuscripts, some with fascinating illustrations and most with essential texts. Te contribution of the Islamic world


continues to this day, but the biggest strides happened in those times that are still alluded to in the 1001 Nights. Te Bayt al-Hikmat (House of Wisdom) was significant enough for it to be known in northern Europe. Emperor Charlemagne took an interest although he might have been more intrigued by the elephant that was sent to him by Harun al-Rashid.


Te lasting value of this exhibition is that


shows the continuity of interest from the Islamic world. Medical curiosity did not end with the sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258. Te vast majority of the manuscripts are from much later but are still filled with wonder at the world of healing. Nor was all the learning Greek and Persian, although these two great cultures were a huge inspiration for the Islamic world. Te contribution of later physicians from unexpected corners of the planet is just as worthwhile to understand. Te Malay Archipelago, for example, was not the go-to place for many in the Islamic heartlands but some of the most interesting content in the exhibition is from there. Te message was out in earlier centuries, occasionally. One Ottoman sultan reputedly insisted on a cure to his ailment being brought from Aceh, Sumatra. For those who are less well informed than


Ottoman rulers, there is a panoply of wonders from the Malay world and beyond. One of the glories of hand-illustrated medical treatises is that the viewer is spared the remorseless realism of modern photography. A disease as visually distressing as Yaws is rendered as something positively appealing in the hands of whichever anonymous Malay


artist showed the patterns of this debilitating infection in the form of crocodiles and the especially deadly ‘three grains running’. Te same applies to illustrations from other parts of the Islamic world in the pre-photographic era. Tere was plentiful use of the imagination. A manual from 18th-century India discusses a winged fox, which is charmingly drawn in ink without any need for more convincing visual evidence. Most of the three-dimensional artefacts are


Illustration of Yaws clusters known as ‘ sea crocodile’ formation, from a Malay book of medicine, 19th century


accessories rather than tools. Tere are some scalpels and other metal devices, but many of the objects in the exhibition would have been used for divinatory purposes rather than hacking and probing. Tis is, of course, a contentious area for many Muslims. Superstition can lead to idolatry, which is vigorously proscribed. Tere is no finer writer on this subject than the Oxford-based Malaysian scholar Farouk Yahya. His introduction to the exhibition catalogue is a pleasure to read as well as a source of valuable information. Treading the fine line between what is and what should be, he highlights many of the practices that take ‘alternative medicine’ to the limit. Te rest of the exhibition and catalogue


Selection of earthenware filters, Egypt, 10th to 11th century


provide as solid a foundation to the subject as is likely to exist for a while. It even has plenty of animal lovers. Te section on equine medicine is a delight that teaches us to judge the age of a horse. Te exhibition does, however, come with a disclaimer about actually using the remedies contained therein. • Al-Tibb: Healing Traditions in Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, from 19 March to mid-June


MARCH 2018 ASIAN ART Dancer with a Tambourine, Iran,


around 1820-1830, oil on canvas, Carpentras,


bibliothèque-musée Inguimbertine © Inp / Ghyslain Vanesse


eyes that came after the Victorian era, which saw a magnificence flowering of facial hair in the West as well as in Iran. Tere is one painting I can think of, probably depicting Fath Ali Shah, that must have set a record for the number of times a painting can be left unsold at auction. His beard would give hipsters of today some severe feelings of inadequacy. Te Rose Garden: Masterpieces of


Persian Art from the 19th Century is an exhibition that brings out the dual


nature of a dynasty that revered the past while embracing modernism. Tere are more than 400 works on display, showing the enormous range of skills and interests that existed in Iran between 1786 and 1925. Te exhibits will certainly brighten the somewhat depressed environment of Lens, in which the Louvre launched its second home six ago. It is a town that could not be more different from Abu Dhabi; and possibly the ex-mining communities of northern France will be more appreciative of


Persian culture than the Arab-centric citizens of the Emirates. Te Qajars swept away the West Asian anciens regimes three years before the French Revolution, and as with the events following 1789, not much changed. Although originally a warrior people, the Qajars settled into sumptuous palace life with gusto. Most of the displays in this exhibition are arts of the court. Many of the exhibits are from


private collections and have never been on public view before. Tis


might not have been possible before the movement of Iranian artefacts was eased during the Obama administration. Who knows what the future of these items will be with the prevailing hostility towards the ‘Axis of Evil’. So, viewers should head over to Lens while the going is good. Te quality of the art is as superior as ever came out of Iran during that period, and the diversity is stunning. It is a lot more than carpets and pen cases. Te interest that the Qajars took in every decorative art form is there to see. To top off the drama, there is scenography by Christian Lacroix.


Most important of all are the


numerous portraits of rulers who were as enthusiastic about recording their appearance and accoutrements as any Western potentates of the Victorian era. Te beards and moustaches are memorable, and Fath Ali Shah is there to lead the way in his improbable magnificence. • Te Rose Garden: Masterpieces of Persian Art from the 19th Century at the Louvre-Lens museum, France, 21 March to 23 July 2018


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