Bridging The Divide Between The United States And The Muslim World Through Arts And Ideas: Possibilities And Limitations

Appendix IV: Background Paper
Cultural Awareness In A Time Of Crisis

ISLAMIC ART TODAY

This brief survey of the creative culture of Muslim societies strongly supports the conclusion that Islamic art has been characterized by diversity and openness to fresh ideas for a span of over fourteen centuries. But while this diversity has remained a constant, the lives of contemporary Muslim artists and performers differ profoundly from those of their predecessors. Guild systems have disappeared. Patronage has passed from rulers and prosperous citizens — who lived (for the most part) within a Muslim universe of discourse — to a global market economy in which the value of Muslim art and other cultural wares is established by dealers in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere, while Muslim consumers are increasingly attracted to cultural goods produced outside their societies.

To be sure, local artisans and performers in more or less isolated areas still respond to local tastes, but change is pervasive. The enormous Djemaa el Fna market in Marrakesh caters to tourists, but also features entertainment and products that appeal primarily to local consumers. A rural fair in conservative Kelantan province in Malaysia may include both traditional shadow plays and arcade video games. And in Islamabad, Pakistan, or Amman, Jordan, it is easier to find a T–shirt decorated with English slogans and corporate logos than one bearing Urdu or Arabic writing.

How does today’s Muslim artist or performer negotiate the complexities of the creative life? For writers, including screenwriters and dramatists, deciding what language to write in may be a challenge. Some North African novelists write only in French; others prefer Arabic. Some write in both. South Asian Muslims may choose between English and Urdu or Bengali. Whatever choice is made involves evaluating not only the readership at which the work is aimed, but also other factors, such as avoiding censorship or acquiring an international reputation. Muslim winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature — Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz and Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk — both earned their distinction with works originally written in their native tongues. But despite their international fame, both encountered criticism within their own countries for opinions expressed in their work. Salman Rushdie, on the other hand, achieved fame for works written in English, one of which, Satanic Verses, became the focus of popular outrage in many Muslim countries because of allegations that he defamed the Prophet Muhammad and his family. On the other hand, Grimus, his seldom–read first novel, is a science—fiction—tinged retelling of the famous Sufi tale of The Conference of the Birds by Farid al–Din Attar.

Visual artists face similar challenges. Some, like the Iranian painter Mahmoud Farshchian, adapt traditional motifs drawn from miniature painting to the tastes of international buyers and émigrés from their homelands. Others, such as Muhammad al–Turki — the designer of Baghdad’s Shaheed (“Martyr”) Monument, dedicated to the soldiers killed in the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) — have devoted their talents to projects expressive of the ideologies of the leaders of their countries. And in some cases, Muslim rulers have called on non–Muslim foreigners to advance their aesthetic agendas. A case in point is a victory arch consisting of two hands gripping crossed swords that Saddam Hussein commissioned for the entrance to a military parade ground. He gave a photograph of his own hands and forearms to the German company H+H Metalform, which built the monument, to use as a model.

Instrumental music and dance, being free from the problems of linguistic translation, may not pose quite such clear–cut issues with respect to catering to specific audiences. Nevertheless, recording contracts, tours, and participation in a growing number of national and international festivals and arts competitions challenge performers and impresarios in ways that bear little resemblance to the artistic life of only a century ago. Clearly, cinema and television are relatively new forums for artistic expression, and therefore have little to do with artistic traditions of many centuries ago.

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