I love this Calligraphic composition in the form of a lion. It is made of incantations to 'Ali, one of whose common titles is the "Lion of God'. The red tongue signifies that "Ali was the spokesman of Muhammad.
This bowl has an inscription that reads, "He (or the Prophet Muhammad) said: Generosity is a disposition of the dwellers of Paradise". I like this bowl, and the daily reminder it gave to the person that owned it of being kind.
This painting is from a Falnamah (Book of Divination) that depicted many Christian, Jewish and Muslim legends. The description of this one is as follows" Al-Dajjal (the deceiver), the Islamic archetype of the false prophet, shown here is a giant, will appear towards the end of the world and after a reign of 40 days will be killed by Jesus. Simultaneously, the Mahdi, the hidden Twelfth Imam of the Shiites, will reappear, taking Jesus as his vizier, who converts to Islam and takes his place behind him at the Ka'bah.
I think the veiled figure at the top right hand corner is the Prophet Muhammed. It was interesting to see how Islam views the prophets and happenings in the Bible.
2 comments:
kr,
Thanks for commenting, or we'd have never known about yours. I dig this entry, and am jealous of its professorial content. Wish we'd known about the exhibit earlier.
Mind if we link to you?
Give jr our best.
jp
jp,
Feel free to link - you may have noticed I already have your blog in my links section! The Art of Islam exhibit is showing until the end of April (I think), so you still have plenty of time to come see.
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