BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | Islam is a presence in Lower Manhattan. No one who lives or works Downtown can long forget the destruction of the World Trade Center followed by the controversy over Cordoba House that came to be known as Park51, or by those who opposed it, as the “Ground Zero mosque.” Thousands of residents and workers in Lower Manhattan are Muslims — and yet by non-Muslims, their culture and religion are not widely understood.
Now Poets House in Battery Park City, the Morgan Library and Museum at 225 Madison Ave. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are offering exhibits and programs that will flesh out that knowledge.
On Thursday, Oct. 27, Coleman Barks will be at Poets House to talk about Rumi, a Muslim and a Sufi mystic, who is one of the most widely read poets in the United States. Rumi was born in Afghanistan in 1207 and died in Turkey in 1273. English translations of his work by Barks have sold more than half a million copies worldwide.
A rare, illustrated manuscript depicting episodes from Rumi’s life is one of the centerpieces of an exhibit that just opened at the Morgan Library called “Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting.” The manuscript, translated from a Persian account of Rumi’s life into Turkish, was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Murad III in 1590. Only two illustrated copies of the Murad translation exist. The other is in Istanbul.
There are 84 manuscripts in the Morgan Library exhibit. Two large, magnificent pages from a 16th-century Qur’an are at the exhibit entrance. But there are also many secular manuscripts. “The Persians loved their poetry and their poets,” said William Voelkle, Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, who organized the exhibit.
Nizami’s “Khamsa,” which dates from the 12th century, was a popular subject. In part, it tells the tale of a sultan who married seven princesses, each of whom entertained him with stories, one for each night of the week. Each princess came from a different country and was associated with a different color and a planet. The Morgan has a brilliant set of illustrations showing the princesses and the sultan, each page, a riff on a different color.
There are also illustrations of another beloved Nizami poem that tells of the doomed love between Laila and Qais, the children of two great chieftains. When Qais saw Laila for the first time, he fell instantly in love with her and could never love anyone else. People said he behaved like a madman and called him “majnun,” (madman), which became the name by which he was known. After many tribulations, Laila and Majnun died and were buried together. The story in the “Khamsa” is based on two real seventh-century lovers.
Among the other poets whose writings inspired illuminations in the Morgan Library’s collection are Hafiz, Jami, Firdausi and Saadi Shirazi. Those who want to know more about their work can find them in the 50,000-volume poetry library at Poets House. Earlier this year, Poets House, in conjunction with City Lore, organized a series of lectures and seminars called “Illuminated Verses: Poetries of the Islamic World.” As Lee Briccetti, executive director of Poets House, wrote at the time, “Poetry is one of the most beloved art forms in the Islamic world. But to say so is a generalization, since there is no single Islamic world.”
That, too, is one of the messages of the extraordinary reinstallation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of its galleries devoted to the “Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.” The Met’s Islamic collection of around 12,000 objects spans more than 13 centuries. After being closed for eight years, the galleries reopen on Nov. 1 with around 1,000 items displayed at any one time.
“The monumentality of Islam did not create a single, monolithic artistic expression, but instead connected a vast geographic expanse through centuries of change and cultural influence,” said Thomas P. Campbell, the museum’s director.
Many of the objects on exhibit are breathtaking in the intricacy of their design and their almost inconceivable craftsmanship — illuminated manuscripts drenched in intense color, ivory and sandstone carved like lace; immense, handmade carpets, textiles with shimmering designs created by threads wrapped in gold, and more.
“I think by looking at these objects we can learn about the marvelous achievements of 1,400 years in these different regions and the sophistication and complexity of societies that existed in these places,” said Sheila Canby, curator of the Department of Islamic Art. “And so I hope that along with being attractive art and really being thrilled by what people see they will also think about our modern world with a different perspective because if people could do something like this, then they can’t be all bad. I hope that people will gain that understanding.”
The Morgan’s exhibit, “Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting,” will run through Jan. 29, 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Islamic galleries are a permanent installation. Both museums have extensive programs of lectures and music to complement the art. For more information, go to www.themorgan.org and to www.metmuseum.org. Information about Poets House is at www.poetshouse.org.
