Khatt Islāmi

Khatt Islāmi, a one-room gallery and online exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, presented objects from diverse media and geographical origin across Islamic Africa from the mid-1800s to today. (Fig. 1) The sixteen items have broad appeal to African immigrants in Minnesota, practitioners of Islam, students, and the general public. Objects in the exhibition derive from nine African nations: Mali, Togo, Nigeria, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Somalia, Niger, and Algeria. They include wooden writing boards of various sizes, cloth wall hangings, metal blades, an amulet and pen cases, as well as a ceramic vase by contemporary Sufi artist Khaled Ben Slimane.Africa is home to more than one-third of the world's Muslim population, and Minnesota is home to the largest Somalian immigrant community in the United States, among many other African immigrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Nigeria who call the Twin Cities home. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) has shown its support for Muslims and individuals of African descent—whether recent immigrants or descendants of enslaved people forced to North America generations ago—through its programming (such as Family Days with lessons based on BIPOC artists' work) and shows such as this. Even before the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the MIA was at the forefront of museums actively working to share the power of story-telling within a space founded by settler colonists. The MIA's Hearts of Our People, an exhibition of female indigenous artists' work, was widely acclaimed for its thoughtful curation by many voices. While much more limited in size and scope, Khatt Islāmi was also notable for its diversity of voice and connection to local communities. Conceived during the ban of Syrian refugees and foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries by presidential Executive Order in 2017 (recently made null by President Biden's Presidential Proclamation from January 20, 2021), Khatt Islāmi focused on the highest form of calligraphy that is sacred to Muslims. Khatt calligraphy is an intimate medium communicating the Divine to people by recording verses from the Qur'an. A small room seems appropriate for intimate contemplations, and the video interviews included on a wall screen and online serve to further humanize and contextualize the objects on display.I was particularly drawn to the embroidered cloths from Morocco whose calligraphy, woven into the cloth in gold lurex thread, takes on a shape illustrative of the verse rendered. The boat in Figure 2 shows a verse from chapter 17, The Journey—al-Isra -that explains the journey the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) took from Mecca to Jerusalem. The Qur'an depicts him on the back of an otherworldly winged horse and here, the script itself seems to re-create the scene: oars and wings, waves and hull, uplifting a metaphysical vessel.Protection is a common theme among many of the objects. It is possible to draw links between the stars in squares on the amulet from Niger (Fig. 3), the grid on the writing board from Mali (Fig. 4), and the designs on the tunic from Togo. (Fig. 5) Muslims strongly believe in the healing powers of the Qur'an, and the amulet protected its wearer. Although reading and writing the Qur'an is the main purpose for the boards, Muslim healers might also use them to write special verses, collect the ink, and give it to the sick as a holy salve. Likewise, a Muslim cleric inscribed strong and protective Qur'anic verses and symbols on the cotton tunic worn by a member of the military nobility of the West African Anufo people over a hundred years ago.Interestingly, the practice of calligraphic-looking mark making for its apotropaic and healing properties also was picked up by non-Muslims; for example on Ghanaian kuduo vessels, or on more contemporary objects, such as tro-tros. Storytelling through geometric symbol too, is an overlap with various Muslim and non-Muslim African visual cultures, and it might have been interesting to create a dialogue with other objects from the MIA's extensive collection, for example, one of the MIA's Wodaabe dance tunics. Such a dialogue might have potentially expanded viewers' awareness of Islam as something that has been and continues to be widely influential to artists across faiths and cultures (I am reminded of Sheila Blair's analysis of the appropriation of Arabic script to signify an Islamic space, or halal food, or the function of an object, to believers and non-Muslims alike [Blair 2017]). Similarly, more dialogue with contemporary artists could have added more dynamism to the displays; the calligraphy on the vase by Khaled Ben Slimane whirls and twists, a written counterpart to mystical Sufic rhythm and dance. (Fig. 6)The online component of the exhibition reflects the physical exhibition well. All sixteen objects and their labels are available via the MIA's website, along with three videos and a recording of Sufi music. The videos are short (under four minutes) and watchable online and in person; I watched them online before visiting. I appreciated the variety of voices: Dr. Fatima Lawson is a Hausa Nigerian who currently serves as principal in a St. Paul elementary school. Her heartfelt explanation of the significance of calligraphy to Muslims was amplified in her live discussion at the curator's talk via Zoom that I also attended, on February 18, 2021. There, she expanded upon the function, meaning, and variety of the writing boards, and iterated her pleasure at having been asked to be a part of this show. She noted (and I agree) that it is important to showcase Islamic art from Africa, because so often non-Muslims consider Islam to be a Middle Eastern phenomenon. She reiterated her keen desire to share her heritage and traditions with younger generations who may not have direct connections to Africa, and with non-Muslims. Similarly, the Somali collector Osman Ali explained in his video that he began collecting to share his heritage with his fellow community members and to facilitate understanding across cultures. Shoaib Siddiqui, a calligrapher from Minneapolis, described his divine call to learn calligraphy. Bringing these voices into the exhibition enriched how we see the objects and their inscriptions—they are no longer inanimate, but enlivened by the people for whom they have deep meaning. This was made most apparent by watching Minneapolis based calligrapher Ayan Ahmed, a Syrian artist trained in Ruq'ah calligraphy. Ahmed demonstrated her technique during the curators' talk on Zoom. She explained how deeply meaningful it is for her to be commissioned to write for special events, such as births and weddings. These demonstrations, made widely available via the internet, show the connection, care, and soul that calligraphy makes manifest. That the MIA collaborated with the Somalia Museum, and sought out diverse voices of men and women in the United States with connections to various Islamic countries, speaks to their commitment to Minnesota's African and Muslim communities in sharing both physical and virtual spaces of power

Archaeology · Geography · Islam · Programming language · Scripting language · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories