Researchers

Baghdad: Symbol of Islamic Glory

24 January 2023

Interview with Dr Julia Gonnella

Baghdad, City of Commerce and Industries. View of the table display: silk fragments and a Sogdian silk coat, Iran or Central Asia, 7th to 9th century, from the MIA collection; a rare 5th/6th-century Chinese silk fragment, loan from the David Collection, Copenhagen

Baghdad: Eye’s Delight, on view at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) until 25 February, celebrates the city’s history and ongoing legacy. MIA's former director, Dr Julia Gonnella, walks us through the unique significance the city holds in the Arab world and beyond.

Q. What makes this exhibition special?

Dr Julia Gonnella: This exhibition is the first exhibition on the city of Baghdad ever put together by a major international museum. We really wanted to celebrate the outstanding legacy of this important Middle Eastern town, not only for visitors to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ but also as part of the Year of Culture dedicated to the MENASA region. The city, its history and culture mean so much in the Arab/Islamic world but alas, due to the wars and miseries of the past forty years, this legacy has gone out of focus, especially for many of our international visitors.

Q. What does Baghdad represent to Qatar and to the Arab/Islamic world?

Gonnella: Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid caliphs for five centuries (762 to 1258 CE) when the Arab world ruled the globe. The city certainly stands for a ‘Golden Age’ in Islamic history and needs to be considered alongside other legacy capitals such as Athens, Beijing, Rome or London that have made an impact on global history. As the seat of the caliphs, it was a city of power that, with its impressive palaces, gardens and sporting grounds, had a visual impact on the world outside. The investment in trade and infrastructure led to a thriving economy with global outreach but also strong domestic industries. Above all, Baghdad is synonymous with outstanding scholarship, as the caliphs invested in schools, libraries and academia. The translation movement and Baghdad’s contributions to the sciences of the world cannot be overestimated. At the same time, it was also the capital of the arts, music and literature that impacted generations to come.

tbc — Baghdad, City of Commerce and Industries. General view with the central table display

tbc — Baghdad, City of Commerce and Industries. General view from the central table display, with travel posters and historical maps, loans from QNL, Qatar National Library, Doha

Q. The exhibition takes visitors on an imaginary tour of Baghdad over many centuries. What will they take away from the experience?

Gonnella: We hope visitors realise that Baghdad was an overriding political and economic centre in the 9th and 10th centuries under the rule of the Abbasid caliphs as well as an outstanding intellectual and artistic centre with world-leading scientific developments and innovations and a magnet for great scholars and thinkers.

The exhibition reveals that Baghdad’s culture did not cease to exist after the devastating Mongol conquest of the city in 1258, which is often seen as the downfall of Abbasid/Arab rule, but instead continued to be an important centre, especially with the discovery of oil in the 20th century when it became a political, economic and cultural hub again.

Visitors will see how the legacy of Abbasid Baghdad contributed to the artistic production of the 20th century.

Q. What new research or new information does the exhibition present? What do you think visitors will find surprising?

Gonnella: We believe that the combination and juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern will come as a surprise to many who might not expect how the legacy of Baghdad has lived on. It is important to note that the exhibition is not conceived as a linear chronological story like in a normal history book. Instead it is more of a walk through a city that wants to be explored, leading you through different spheres of the city life. It is very evocative, with strong emotional parts in it like poetry, films, pictures and music. People will recognize some things they know but also discover new things.

The exhibition catalogue includes many articles by international scholars on various topics of Baghdad, its history, infrastructure, architecture and urban planning, but also the arts, both ancient and modern.

1 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: This is a very rare and beautiful old depiction of Baghdad, which appears in an illustrated copy of the Rawdat al-Abrar of Kara Çelebizade Abdülaziz Efendi, a history of the Ottoman Turks. It shows the walled city in the 17th century after the Ottomans reconquered the city from the Iranian Safavids in 1638. One can clearly see Baghdad’s characteristic pontoon bridge in the centre but also the shrine of Abu Hanifa, the founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic law who was much revered by the Ottomans. The shrine is one of the important religious sites in Baghdad today.

2 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Siege of Baghdad by the Mongol army. Property of the Berlin State Library –PK http://orient-digital.de/receive/SBBMSIllustration_illustration_00000256

Gonnella: One of the significant events for the history of Baghdad was the siege of the city by the Mongol army in 1258, which led to the end of the rule of the Abbasid caliphs. This extremely important historical moment is depicted on a most exceptional double-page, probably produced for the Mongol Ilkhanid court in the 14th century. You can clearly see the fortified city beleaguered by an army of warriors and their war machines. The man on the boat could be the Abbasid caliph al-Muta’sim Billah (r. 1242-58) attempting to escape.

3 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: One of the most amazing eyecatchers of Abbasid Baghdad must have been the staggering caliphal palaces with their lavish gardens and hunting grounds and luxurious interiors, which set the stage for grand receptions. Unfortunately, none of these survived. But textiles and garments like this waistcoat from Central Asia could have been worn at the Abbasid court. Sumptuous silks from this part of the world were fashionable across the Abbasid Empire and thus at the same time are important documents for the important trade to the East.

4 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Bab el Gharbaa (Gateway to the West). Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, "Bab El Gharbaa (Gateway to the West)", Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah © Bonhams Auctioneers

Gonnella: One of my favourite pieces is the impressive doors by the Iraqi artist Mohammad Ghani Hikmat, whose work often draws inspiration from Iraq’s ancient past. These doors were inspired by the Abbasid woodcarving tradition that has survived in the doors from the Abbasid site of Samarra. Abbasid artists had invented the so-called ‘bevelled style’, a style that refers to a form of ornamentation based on a vegetal design that was slant cut so that the foreground and background become almost indistinguishable.

5 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: Until today, very many people believe that the ‘Golden Age’ of Baghdad vanished with the conquest of the Mongol armies in 1258. However, while the Mongols indeed destroyed much of the city, it was rebuilt soon after again and for sure it remained an important centre of book production under the new Mongol-Ilkhanid rulers. Newly converted to Islam, the Ilkhanids re-established peace in Baghdad, and commissioned some of the most impressive large Qur’an manuscripts ever produced.

One exceptionally beautiful example is this single-volume Qur’an manuscript, which is remarkable for its outstanding calligraphy by the master scribe Arghun Al-Kamili but also the illumination by the artist Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Din al-Baghdadi, who created its impressive double-page frontispiece.

6 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: Some of my great favourites are the eye-catching calligraphies by famous artist Dia Azzawi from his series Homage to Baghdad, which illustrate the important role played by the master scribes of Baghdad in the history of Arabic calligraphy. The prints display a combination of letters, symbols, and shapes in bright hues or stark black and white to produce an evocative yet abstract image of the city.

Baghdad’s legacy for the history of calligraphy cannot be overstated: masters such as Ibn Muqla (10th century) and Yaqut al-Musta‘simi (13th century) reformed and canonised the standard scripts, penning some of the most impressive manuscripts ever produced in the Islamic world.

7 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Armlet impressed with a coin of the Abbasid caliph al-Qadir Billah (r. 991 – 1031). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1957

Gonnella: Under the Abbasids, international trade was a major source of Baghdad’s wealth and it significantly stimulated local industry and economy. Gold was mostly sourced from Senegal, Mali and Ghana in Africa or Sumatra in Southeast Asia, but Baghdad’s goldsmith perfected technology such as the fine micro-granulation as seen on this armlet (which would have been worn as a pair). In Baghdad, gold-working was considered a speciality of Jewish craftsmen.

8 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: The fifth section of the exhibition is dedicated to Baghdad’s inhabitants and shows paintings and photographs of the people in their everyday environment. As obviously no such paintings exist from the early Abbasid period, this section mainly comprises paintings and photographs of Baghdad’s 20th century.

One of my favourite art pieces of this section is the Cubist painting by Hafidh al-Droubi, one of Iraq’s great pioneers of modern art, which shows women in a café. The artist was fascinated with Baghdad’s street life and, although it is depicted in an abstract manner, one can easily feel the wonderful atmosphere, as if one were joining the women in the coffeehouse.

9 / 9

Exhibition Highlight

Gonnella: Throughout the exhibition, visitors will find photographs by the recently deceased artist Latif Al Ani, probably Iraq’s best-known photographer, whose career lasted from the 1950s to the 1970s during a golden age when the country underwent intense modernization. His images wonderfully document the city, its people and the many facets of their everyday pleasures, but also the changes of modernization as seen on this remarkable photograph of the construction of the Darbandikhan Dam. His work represents an important visual memory of a time before so much of the country was destroyed by decades of war and conflict.

Q. How does this exhibition fit into MIA's position as home to one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world?

Gonnella: MIA represents Islamic art of three continents from the 8th to the 19th century. Baghdad was the key urban centre for the entire Islamic world and a huge inspiration, and in the active sense also an instigator of the arts, culture and sciences that influenced generations to come.

This exhibition celebrates the special place Baghdad has in the Arab world and reminds us all that the vision of the city continues to inspire people in Baghdad and beyond.

Dr Julia Gonnella is the Former Director of MIA.