Should One Talk about Contemporary Muslim Art or Should One Just Listen?

Reviewed by: Cleo Cantone, London

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Books Reviewed

Markets of Civilization - Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria, by Muriem Haleh Davis. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2022, 264pp. ISBN: 978-1478018506.

Plants of the Qur’an - History & Culture, by Shahina A. Ghazanfar (illustrated by Sue Wickison). Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, 2023, 208 pp. ISBN: 978- 1842467176.

Contemporary British Muslim Arts and Cultural Production - Identity, Belonging and Social Change, by Sadek Hamid and Stephen H. Jones. London & New York: Routledge, 2023, 131pp. ISBN: 978-1032362021.

Islamicate Textiles - Fashion Fabric and Ritual, by Faegheh Shirazi. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2023, 197pp. ISBN: 978-1350291232

At the time of writing, the days are getting longer and that sudden burst of frosty weather seems to have passed leaving behind some hopeful shoots of bulbs poking through the soil and buds on trees similarly intimating the slow but steady arrival of the season of Rebirth. Many gardeners have long since done their bulb planting homework and are eagerly awaiting the first Narcissi followed by different species of Tulips. As many will know, this colourful flower, easily found in local supermarkets, has its origins in southern Europe and central Asia whence its derivation from the Turkish tülbent and Persian dulband, meaning turban, whose shape resembles the flower. What caught my eye in Shaheen Kasmani’s chapter “Decentring the Colonial Gaze – the Framing of Islamic Art” is a detail of delicately stylised tulips from the tiles in Eryp Sultan’s palace and the Topkapi palace in Istanbul: a fitting illustration for this time of year.

What I also appreciated in Kasmani’s chapter, herself an artist, is the passion and purpose of her writing: the author makes a strong case for a fundamentally non-western appraisal of the art form she practises. It is a shame that she does not go more in-depth into her own art-making as this would have provided a tangible example of what she means by Islamic, rather than Muslim, Art. Trained at the Prince of Wales School of Traditional Arts, Kasmani is in a good position to critically attack the cliquey world of Islamic Art Historians—the vast majority of whom are non-Muslims—which prioritises the aesthetic over the spiritual dimensions of the superlative examples of craftsmanship and building practice that characterise Islamic Art. Her contribution is illustrated by examples of what she calls the three main elements associated with Islamic Art: (1) Calligraphy; (2) Sacred Geometry and (3) Isilimi (what is more commonly known as Arabesque). Here Kasmani makes her position very clear: in order to decolonise Islamic Art, non-Orientalist terms like ‘Arabesque’ are replaced with their Arabic equivalent. Ben Attarine Madrasah in Fes, Morocco, is used to exemplify the superb bands of calligraphy, stucco work and zillij (tiles cut by hand to form intricate geometric patterns). Kasmani includes work by the contemporary calligraphic artist and fellow graduate of the Prince of Wales School, Sorarya Syed, in her calligraphic rendering of the word Ḥurriyah or Freedom. Back in the mid-1990s, I remember when Soraya was starting out as a calligrapher and it is wonderful that she has since developed a successful career as an Islamic artist—proof that there is such a thing as contemporary Islamic Art.