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Ashaar Baghdad
''Ashaar Baghdad'' ('Baghdad's Poetry') is a public monument in Baghdad, created by the sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat (1929–2011) and inaugurated in 2013. It appears as a golden globe, bearing Arabic letters that have been squeezed together and distorted to form the spherical shape. It is an unusual example of hurufiyya-inspired sculpture. Background In 2010, the Mayor of Baghdad commissioned the sculptor, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, to complete a series of four monuments as part of a Baghdad Culture program. The artist began work on four new sculptures to be erected in various locations around Baghdad. However, this would be his final project, for the sculptor died before it was completed. Ghani's son oversaw the completion of the project. All four works blended Iraqi tradition with modern techniques and materials. The first to be completed was ''Al Fanous El Sehri'' ('Magic Lantern') inaugurated in 2011. The remaining three works, ''Ashaar Baghdad'' ('Baghdad's Poetry', a fountai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mohammed Ghani Hikmat
Mohammad Ghani Hikmat (April 20, 1929 – September 12, 2011) ( ar, محمد غني حكمت) was an Iraqi sculptor and artist credited with creating some of Baghdad's highest-profile sculptures and monuments and was known as the "sheik of sculptors". He is also known as an early member of Iraq's first 20th-century art groups, including ''Al-Ruwad'' (the Pioneers) and The Baghdad Modern Art Group; two groups that helped to bridge the gap between tradition and modern art. He was also instrumental in recovering many of Iraq's missing artworks, which were looted following the 2003 invasion. Life and career Ghani was born in 1929 in the Kadhimiya neighbourhood of Baghdad. As a young boy, he liked to mould objects out of clay that he found in his surroundings and his talent was soon noticed. He graduated from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad in 1953, before completing his studies in 1957 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy. He spent seven years in Italy, where he also s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. In 762 CE, Baghdad was chosen as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Baghdad was the largest city in the world for much of the Abbasid era during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurufiyya
Hurufism ( ar, حُرُوفِيَّة ''ḥurūfiyyah'', Persian: حُروفیان ''hōrufiyān'') was a Sufi movement based on the mysticism of letters (''ḥurūf''), which originated in Astrabad and spread to areas of western Iran (Persia) and Anatolia in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Foundation The founder and spiritual head of the Hurufi movement was Fazlallah Astarabadi (1340–94). Born in Astrabad (now Gorgan, Iran), he was strongly drawn to Sufism and the teachings of Mansur Al-Hallaj and Rumi at an early age. In the mid-1370s, Fazlallah started to propagate his teachings all over Iran and Azerbaijan. While living in Tabriz, Fazlallah gained an elite following in the court of the Jalairid Sultanate. At that time, Fazlallah was still in the mainstream of Sufi tradition. Later, he did move towards more esoteric spirituality, and, failing to convert Timur, was executed in 1394 near Alinja Tower in Nakhchivan by the ruler's son, Miran Shah. The large upri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes its name. They ruled as caliphs for most of the caliphate from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after having overthrown the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE (132 anno Hegirae, AH). The Abbasid Caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, modern-day Iraq, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, near the ancient Babylonian Empire, Babylonian capital city of Babylon. Baghdad became the center of Science in the medieval Islamic world, science, Islamic culture, culture and List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world, invention in what became known as the Islamic Golden Age, Golden Age of Islam. This, in addition to housing several ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scheherazade
Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' derives from the Middle Persian name , which is composed of the words ('lineage') and ('noble, exalted'). The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name in Arabic sources include (, ) in Masudi, and in Ibn al-Nadim. The name appears as in the ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' and as in ''Encyclopædia Iranica''. Among standard 19th-century printed editions, the name appears as () in Macnaghten's Calcutta edition (1839–1842) and in the 1862 Bulaq edition, and as () in the Breslau edition (1825–1843). Muhsin Mahdi's critical edition has (). The spelling ''Scheherazade'' first appeared in English-language texts in 1801, borrowed from German usage. Narration The story goes that the monarch Shahryar, on discovering that his first wife was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of One Thousand And One Nights Characters
This is a list of characters in ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ''The Arabian Nights''), the classic, medieval collection of Middle-Eastern folk tales. Characters in the frame story Scheherazade Scheherazade or Shahrazad ( fa, شهرزاد}, ''Šahrzād'', or , ) is the legendary Persian queen who is the storyteller and narrator of ''The Nights''. She is the daughter of the kingdom's vizier and the older sister of Dunyazad. Against her father's wishes, she marries King Shahryar, who has vowed that he will execute a new bride every morning. For 1,001 nights, Scheherazade tells her husband a story, stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger. This forces the King to keep her alive for another day so that she could resume the tale at night. The name derives from the Persian ''šahr'' () and ''-zâd'' (); or from the Middle-Persian ''čehrāzād'', wherein ''čehr'' means 'lineage' and ''āzād'', 'noble' or 'exalted' (i.e. 'of noble or exalted lineage' or 'of noble appearance/origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurufiyya Movement
The Hurufiyya movement ( ar, حروفية ''ḥurufiyyah'', adjectival form ''ḥurufī'', 'letters' (of the alphabet)) is an aesthetic movement that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century amongst Muslim artists, who used their understanding of traditional Islamic calligraphy within the precepts of modern art. By combining tradition and modernity, these artists worked towards developing a culture specific visual language, which instilled a sense of national identity in their respective nation states, at a time when many of these states where shaking off colonial rule and asserting their independence. They adopted the same name as the Hurufi, an approach of Sufism which emerged in the late 14th–early 15th century. Art historian Sandra Dagher has described Hurufiyya as the most important movement to emerge in Arabic art in the 20th century. Definition The term ''hurifiyya'' is derived from the Arabic term ''harf'' which means 'letter' (of the alphabet). When the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iraqi Art
Iraqi art is one of the richest art heritages in world and refers to all works of visual art originating from the geographical region of what is present day Iraq since ancient Mesopotamian periods. For centuries, the capital, Baghdad was the Medieval centre of the literary and artistic Arab world during the Abbasid Caliphate, in which Baghdad was the capital, but its artistic traditions suffered at the hands of the Mongol invaders in the 13th century. During other periods it has flourished, such as during the reign of Pir Budaq, or under Ottoman rule in the 16th century when Baghdad was known for its Ottoman miniature painting. In the 20th century, an art revival, which combined both tradition and modern techniques, produced many notable poets, painters and sculptors who contributed to the inventory of public artworks, especially in Baghdad. These artists are highly regarded in the Middle East, and some have earned international recognition. The Iraqi modern art movement had a pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Sculptures
Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as well as bronze elements to be fitted to other objects such as furniture. It is often gilding, gilded to give gilt-bronze or ormolu. Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mould. Then, as the bronze cools, it shrinks a little, making it easier to separate from the mould. Their strength and wikt:ductility, ductility (lack of brittleness) is an advantage when figures in action poses are to be created, especially when compared to various ceramic or stone materials (such as marble sculpture). These qualities allow the creation of extended figures, as in ''Jeté'', or figures that have small cross sections in their support, such as the Richard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monuments And Memorials In Iraq
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical, political, technical or architectural importance. Some of the first monuments were dolmens or menhirs, megalithic constructions built for religious or funerary purposes. Examples of monuments include statues, (war) memorials, historical buildings, archaeological sites, and cultural assets. If there is a public interest in its preservation, a monument can for example be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Etymology It is believed that the origin of the word "monument" comes from the Greek ''mnemosynon'' and the Latin ''moneo'', ''monere'', which means 'to remind', 'to advise' or 'to warn', however, it is also believed that the word monument originates from an Albanian word 'mani men' which in Albanian language means 'rememb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourist Attractions In Baghdad
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (other), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (other), tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be Domestic tourism, domestic (within the traveller's own country) or International tourism, international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown (the late-2000s recession) between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and in consequence of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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