Jamil Iskandar, a professor of Medieval Arab Philosophy, was invited to spend three months studying the French museum’s collection, whose highlights include manuscripts and calligraphy techniques.
São Paulo – Paris’ Louvre Museum boasts one of the world’s most comprehensive and relevant Islamic art collections. An entire dedicated wing was inaugurated in 2012. The institution welcomes professors and researchers from around the world looking to access the collection and learn more about it. In late 2014, professor Jamil Ibrahim Iskandar, a 66-year-old Lebanese man who’s lived in Brazil since he was 10, had the chance to gain in-depth knowledge of the collection.
Lionel Bonaventure/AFP
Professor was invited by the Louvre by the institution
Iskandar is a professor of Medieval Arab Philosophy at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) since 2009, and last year he was invited by the director of the Louvre’s Department of Islamic Art to further his studies at the institution in France.
During the three months in which he had full access to the Louvre’s collection, Iskandar researched and perused rare manuscripts, ceramic items, rugs, art pieces in wood and metal, and calligraphy. “I had the chance to see the influence of religion in art production and philosophy through calligraphy, which is the art of making godly words beautiful,” says Iskandar. Islamism does not worship images of saints or prophets. As a consequence, calligraphy, which conveys the teachings of the Koran and the values espoused by Islam, became a form of Arab artistic expression.
“They would write the words of Islam in very different ways and things developed form there. Other artistic expressions include flower drawings, arabesques and the use of color, for instance. They wanted the instruments of religion to be portrayed in a flamboyant way, because of the flamboyancy of the creator himself,” says the professor.
Personal archive
Iskandar: Arab philosophy is the subject of his research
Iskandar mentions, for example, a 10th century edition of the Koran whose pages’ edges were adorned with floral designs before the text was added. This desire to render words – and thus the representation of God – beautiful spawned schools and art techniques.
This evolution and representation of Islamic art, says the professor, is the feature that sets the Louvre’s collection apart from the rest. “It (the collection) stands out for the quantity and variety of artworks and time periods, and also for how it is organized. It comprises tiles, wood items, carpets, metal items. In the exhibition area, they showcase the expansion of the Islamic empire from the 6th century through to the latest conquests, which helps visitors grasp the historical context and situate the objects on display,” he says. According to the researcher, there are 3,000 objects on show and another 2,000 stored at the museum.
A gap in history
The Arab philosophy is the focus of Iskandar’s studies since he was 15 years old. When he reached high school, he started to miss the presence of Arab history and thought in the history classes. “I noticed that there was a gap, that history would ‘skip’ the Arabs. I started to study on my own. I never strayed from the Arab philosophy in my master’s degree, doctorate, or even in post-graduate studies”, he says.
Since 2009, Iskandar teaches at Unifest. Among his students, there are doctorate, master’s and approximately 70 undergraduate students that chose Arab philosophy among their optional classes.
With the classes at Unifesp, Iskandar plans to deepen his studies and, if possible, resume his research at the Louvre. He has a special interest in translation and found manuscripts that are related to this area of research: Arab philosophy.
Among all the objects he research and observed between October 2014 and January 2015, the period he lived in Paris, Iskandar singles out two of them: a manuscript from the historian and theologian Ibn khaldun (who lived between 1332 and 1406) and pages from the first editions of the Koran, with their origin dating back to the eighth century. Before putting his plan in motion, he plans to finish the translation, from the Arabic to Portuguese, of a work by Avicenna: “The Physics of the Healing”, a project that should take him two years to translate its 600 pages.
fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://www2.anba.com.br/noticia/21868017/education/brazilian-professor-researches-islamic-art-at-the-louvre/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
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