Attended the lecture by Ali Asani, a Harvard professor on this topic on Friday, January 23rd, 2015
It was one of the Annemarrie Schimmel Memorial Lecture. I have mentioned another lecture earlier in a post silsila-i-jogiyan
While she was the professor at Harvard, Dr Schimmel was a consultant at the Met. As per her student, Ali Asani, she used to travel every Thursday to the Met in NY to work on manuscripts and artifacts.
What he chose as the elaboration of the topic was how the word of God, the Quran is expressed in Islamic art.
He picked an example of various forms of arts. Auditory/Sonic, Calligraphy, Architecture, objects of daily use, like water filters and outer garments.
AUDITORY:
First was the example of art in the auditory sense. This was the way the Quran was experienced by the Prophet and the early Muslims. Written form was there to document it and preserve it. The actual Quran was the oral version and rendition of it. That is how it was experienced by the faithful and is still the mainstay of Quranic experience.
He played three different recitations of the Fatiha and elaborated how each rendition had a different effect musically on the listener. He gave the example of Caliph Omar and how he entered Islam after listening to Quran while on a mission to find how and why his sister converted to Islam
CALLIGRAPHY:
Second is the calligraphy and the written form of Book. He showed a few examples of the artistic calligraphy of Quran.
ARCHITECTURE:
Then in architecture. Here is showed how calligraphy is a part of the interior decoation of the Mosques dome and its mosiac's work
click here
ARTICLES OF DAILY USE: UTENSILS
Then he showed an example of a water filter which has quranic inscription in it and the words of Quran itself become the filter. As if the water is purified physically while going through the small pores of the filter, it is at the same time is being spiritually purified by the words of God.
Could not find a picture of the filter
GARMENTS:
Garments. There was an example of Quran as a talisman. Weaved and written on a tunic, the whole of Quran. It was to be worn by the Sultan under the Armour as a talisman to protect the king from enemy. It was interesting to see something like this, as I thought printing of Quranic verses on clothes is discouraged in Islam. I was wrong.
Talismanic-shirt.jpg
Here is another example
MUSIC (AGAIN)
In the end, the music. He showed a video performance of Rumi by Farida Mahwash of Afghanistan singing the Sound of the Soul by Rumi (mathnavi maanavi), telling the story of the Reed, as it has been separated from the tree. Similar concept is expressed in some of the Pumjabi sufi lyrics.
Sound of Soul
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