Masnavi-i ma`navi by Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, Iran, 19th century (detail). Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Roslyn Tappenden took in the latest epic show at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
A major exhibition of Middle Eastern artefacts is on show at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until June 19 2005. Illuminating Faith is a fascinating collection of illustrated manuscripts, textiles, dress, ceramics and metalwork from the Middle East dating from the 9th to the 19th centuries.
The exhibition has been brought together from two collections. One sponsored by Dr Edward Cadbury in the 1920s and the other amassed by Wilfred Southall who made several trips to Palestine between 1909 and 1936.
Lives of Saints, St Macarius, Egypt, 1843 (detail). Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Cadbury’s Mingana Collection, now owned by the University of Birmingham, includes around 3,000 items – 35 of which are displayed in the gallery. In the 1920s Edward Cadbury sponsored Iraqi-born Alphonse Mingana to amass a collection of manuscripts for study at Woodbrooke and Selly Oak Colleges.
Mingana brought back mainly Arabic and Syriac Middle Eastern manuscripts but the collection also includes some Hebrew works as well as coins and stone tablets. The Mingana collection is the third largest of its kind in the UK.
Although protected in glass cases, some of the manuscripts look brittle and ancient, but others are remarkably intact for their age and the inks are still bright and vibrant.
The Southall dress collection consists of more than 100 items including robes, trousers, shawls, hats and some rather unusual footwear. The items were collected in Palestine by Birmingham-born Wilfred Southall whose family, like Cadbury, had strong Quaker connections.
Hat (shatweh), Bethlehem area, 1920-1930s (detail). Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Southall’s descendants donated this magnificent collection to Birmingham Museum in 1985 but this is the first time it has been on display.
Cllr John Alden, cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture, said: "This is a rare opportunity to see an exquisite collection of Middle Eastern art that is particularly relevant to communities in our multi-cultural city."
The works in the exhibition have been collected from Iran, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula and include Jewish, Islamic and Christian items.
Roslyn Tappenden is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the West Midlands region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
