Tharik Hussain provides a Muslim centric view of European history with vivid descriptions of his observations and encounters in a path that traversed Cyprus, Sicily, Andulusia and its neighbouring Al-gharb Al-Andalus (Portugal). The work conveys the web of knowledge and skills across these lands that so enriched European culture – it is a Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage that has shaped the continent.
An extract from the author’s visit to a museum in Portugal, which is a ray of hope in the search of connecting Europe to its Muslim heritage:
| When the Islamic Art Museum of Mértola was opened in December 2001, three months after 9/11, it was the first museum to open in Portugal exclusively dedicated to the country’s Muslim past. Curated by Cláudio Torres and his colleague Santiago Macias, the museum sits in a beautiful eighteenth-century building that was once a royal storehouse, at the very south-western edge of Mértola. The collection covers the town’s Islamic period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries and is home to a host of items that have inspired patterns and murals I had seen scattered across the town. We were greeted by Susana Gómez Martínez, a professor of medieval history and archaeology, who had agreed to give us a brief tour of the key objects in the small museum. One of the first she stopped in front of was a beautiful ceramic bowl of faded green with sand-coloured vegetal patterns that framed a large bird in the middle. ‘This is very unusual,’ I said. ‘No, not for this period . . . there are ideas that this symbol is to remember a legend about the Caliph al-Mu’min, and a bird,’ explained Susana, who was of late middle age and wore a polka-dotted grey blouse and navy-blue shorts. The Caliph in question was Abd al-Mu’min, one of the greatest ‘caliphs’ of the Almohad empire (or Caliphate), which ruled Mértola between 1151 and 1250 – the longest of any Muslim dynasty after the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the eleventh century. Al-Mu’min, who reigned for twelve of those years, was the founder of the Almohads’ Mu’minid dynasty. Their use of the terms ‘caliph’ and ‘caliphate’ did not constitute any claims to global Muslim supremacy. It was during al-Mu’min’s reign that the Almohads came out of North Africa and took over al-Andalus from the Almoravids – also from North Africa – who had first stepped into the vacuum left behind by the Caliphate in 1086, when, panicked by the fall of Muslim Toledo in 1085, the Muslim taifa rulers led by Seville’s Abbadids had sent an SOS to their co-religionists in North Africa. Both the Almoravid and the Almohad reunification of the former Caliphate lands began with periods of conservatism and, in some cases, intolerance, before slowly developing into cultures which resembled that of the Caliphate they had initially despised as too decadent and lacking in piety. Each one went on to produce its own distinct culture, architectural style and body of intellectual work. Al-Mu’min, whose name means ‘the Believer’, helped to define the Almohad architectural and artistic style by building some of its greatest monuments, including the Kutubiyah Mosque, the Mosque of Tinmal and the Kasbah of the Udayas, all in Morocco. ‘Wow, these are really impressive,’ I said as we approached several large ‘winged’ ceramic glazed jars. ‘You remember I showed you the tiles on the wall?’ Manuel asked. ‘Yes, yes! So this was the inspiration,’ I said excitedly. Manuel nodded. Each jar was about the height of a small child, but much wider. Starting from the thick neck, every inch of the green glaze was covered in beautiful, almost rhythmic patterns, just as I had seen in giant form beside the Guadiana café. There were rows of classical Kufic Arabic above thin rows of delicate vegetal patterns that sat above mosaic ones. The largest motifs were of the classic horseshoe arch synonymous with the Umayyads [. . .] |
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