Es-Said collection helps study of mediaeval Islamic symbolism - Allan

KUN0007 4 GEN 0317 KUWAIT /KUNA-LQD5 CUL-US-SAID-COLLECTION (with photos) Es-Said collection helps study of mediaeval Islamic symbolism - Allan By David MacDonald WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (KUNA)--Palestinian Nuhad Es-Said's collection of mediaeval Islamic metalwork, put together over only 3 1/2 years, is of great value to art historians because it helps them to develop a better understanding of the societies of that period, according to an Oxford University professor. The collection, now on loan to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art in Washington, contains 27 items that Professor James W. Allan, Keeper of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, describes as "objects not only of the highest technical quality, but, in their beauty and richness, a rare experience for those privileged to handle and admire them." Professor Allan is curator of the Islamic collection at the Ashmolean and lectures on Islamic art for the Oriental Faculty at Oxford University. He has published books and articles on Islamic pottery, metal technology, metalwork and architecture, and a catalogue for this collection. The Es-Said collection was on loan by the Es-Said family to the Ashmolean for many years and made its first journey outside the United Kingdom when it was loaned to the Sackler. Nuhad Es-Said's collection of inkwells, bowls, incense burners, ewers, candlesticks, basins, pen cases, Kaaba keys, a tray stand, a wine pourer, a jug and a kashkul, draw a steady stream of visitors inside the Sackler. The collector was born in Jaffa, Palestine, in 1937, completed his high school in Beirut, to which the family moved in 1948 and then attended Cambridge University in England. There he began collecting old maps and 19th century pocket watches. He gave up on maps after his tutor called them unimportant. He gave up on pocket watches after finding out that the two he had bought were forgeries. After taking a new interest in Islamic ceramics, he learned that their shape, form and decoration were often based on metalwork. When he saw his first Islamic silver-inlaid bronze candlestick he was so impressed that he began collecting Islamic metalwork. The speed with which he collected was fortuitous, because he developed, in middle age, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal disease of the spinal cord that causes muscle weakness. Americans call it Lou Gehrig's disease, after New York Yankees baseball great Lou Gehrig, who had to give up baseball in 1939 because of it. Es-Said died in 1982, aged 45, but his name is well remembered by art historians because, says Professor Allan, "The objects in the Es-Said Collection, their decorative schemes and their inscriptions, provide a most important set of clues for the study of mediaeval Islamic symbolism." These objects come from all parts of the central Islamic lands, from Mogul India, through Afghanistan to Egypt. The most striking piece appears in the entrance to the Sackler rooms holding the collection. It is a beaten brass incense burner on three brass legs, inlaid with gold, silver and a black compound. It was made in the late 13th or early 14th century for the Mameluke Sultan Nasir al-Din Mohammed, who ruled the area now known as Syria and Egypt, from the Citadel in Cairo. Professor Allan says that among such incense burners of this period, "This is undoubtedly the most magnificent of them all, in its size, in its state of preservation, and in the splendor of its design." In addition to being used sometimes in mosques, the 9th century Arab historian al-Masudi wrote that before approaching the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun in Baghdad, officials were given incense burners to perfume themselves. The collection also has a small incense box, made for the same sultan, with a shape on the lid reminiscent of the Dome of the Rock. Inlaid with gold and silver, it carries inscriptions in naskhi glorifying the sultan as "the learned, the diligent, the just, the conqueror, the holy warrior." The finest of the ewers in the collection was made at Herat in the late 12th or early 13th century of beaten brass inlaid with silver and copper, with a lion on the spout lid. The neck has two seated lions, while seated figures decorate the shoulder. Around the waist of the ewer are roundels containing signs of the zodiac and planets. Professor Allan's respect for Nuhad Es-Said's discrimination in creating this collection was shown by his statement that "he has placed before me a body of art-historical material which has greatly altered my outlook as an Islamic art historian." (end) dm.kf KUNA 200909 Oct 03NNNN