Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks [antikvár]

FOREWORD Why is it that a society blossoms out in a bouquet of artistry at a given moment in time ? Such a moment occurred when the Mamluk sultans, based in Cairo, ruled the East from the mountains of Türke}' to the sands of Nubia, from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea. By Western reckoning, the period was that of the Middle Ages. For the world of Islam, the two hundred and fifty years of Mamluk rule marked a rebirth, a renaissance. Yet there were parallels between West and East in terms of human goals and achievements. As the workers, peasants, and merchants of medieval Europe thrust their Gothic spires toward heaven, the craftsmen of the Arab East gave expression to their faith and their societal concepts with achievements of architecture, religious manuscripts, metalwork, and glass, which form a legacy of opulence and beauty. In a sense, the title of this book and the traveling exhibition that it recaptures is not entirely accurate. The Mamluks were not artists, far from it. They were profes-sional soldiers, merchants if j'ou will, the sultan's bodyguards, who themselves in time rose to be sultans and establish the Mamluk dynasty. Their origins were not in the great cities of the East—Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad—but in the far-off plains of central and western Asia. Nor did they provide a perfect stability for the lands over which they reigned. Violence and turmoil were endemic in the East as in the West in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. And the Mamluks in the main did not sit easily on their thrones. And yet they were men of vision and practicality. They drove the Crusaders from the Levant and turned back the Mongols. They then proceeded to trade with both Europe and Asia. This trade together with the natural gifts of the region and skills of its people brought a fabled wealth. Mamluk society found it natural to divert vast portions of its wealth to the support of artists and craftsmen. It was equally natural for those artisans to reflect this generosity by devoting their creative efforts to the glorification of their benefactors. This interaction of patron and artist is hardly unique to the Mamluks; it has sustained art through the ages. One must remember, though, that this exhibition and book deal not simply with a renaissance, but with a renaissance of Islam. From the time of the Prophet Muhammad until today, Islam has represented a way of life, an all-encompassing approach to life itself. The era'-s dedication to the philosophy and message of Islam is mirrored in its art, predominantly oixlered, symmetrical, and geometric in conception and execution. It is possible to speculate that this overriding sense of order was in part a reaction to disorder—to the period's wars, palace rivalries, and cruelties. Despite the disorder, the world of the Mamluks was a world of commerce. A rich dividend offered by this volume and exhibition is the evidence they provide of the extent to which the flow of trade across the world inspired an intermingling of images and artistic concepts. Today, as five centuries ago, the world yearns for peace and unity. It is heartening then, to note that this treasure of Mamluk art was gathered together with the unstinting cooperation of the governments of Egypt and Syria and museums, national and private, on four continents, with the generous support of an American enterprise, the United Technologies Corporation, and with the dedicated help of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and a variety of other Smithsonian staff members and offices. It is through such joint efforts that the cultural accomplishments of the past can be harnessed to enrich the present. S. Dillon Ripley Secretary, Smithsonian Institution