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Representations of the Prophet Muhammad are controversial, and generally forbidden in Sunni Islam (especially Hanafiyya, Wahabi, Salafiyya).<br/><br/> Shia Islam and some other branches of Sunni Islam (Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i) are generally more tolerant of such representational images, but even so the Prophet's features are generally veiled or concealed by flames as a mark of deep respect.
The Imam Asim Shrine and other tombs can be found 23 kilometres from Khotan (Hotan) on the southern Silk Road. It is the site of a huge pilgrimage each May.<br/><br/>Imam Asim was one of the first Islamic missionaries to visit this area.<br/><br/>Khotan traces its history back at least as far as the 3rd century BCE, when the eldest son of the Indian emperor Asoka is said to have settled here. It was of great importance on the Silk Road, and is claimed to have been the first place outside China to have cultivated silk.<br/><br/>It sits astride the Karakash or ‘Black Jade’ and Yurungkash or ‘White Jade’ Rivers, which here conjoin to form the Khotan Darya, and has been famous for its jade for well over two millennia.<br/><br/>In times past trade routes crossed the desert to the north all the way to Kuqa, and as recently as 2007 this link has been re-established for the first time in centuries with the opening of a second Desert Highway leading to Aksu, distant some 424km to the north.<br/><br/>In 1006 Khotan was conquered by Uighur Muslims from Kashgar, and since that time the city remains a very Uighur place.
The Imam Asim Shrine and other tombs can be found 23 kilometres from Khotan (Hotan) on the southern Silk Road. It is the site of a huge pilgrimage each May.<br/><br/>Imam Asim was one of the first Islamic missionaries to visit this area.<br/><br/>Khotan traces its history back at least as far as the 3rd century BCE, when the eldest son of the Indian emperor Asoka is said to have settled here. It was of great importance on the Silk Road, and is claimed to have been the first place outside China to have cultivated silk.<br/><br/>It sits astride the Karakash or ‘Black Jade’ and Yurungkash or ‘White Jade’ Rivers, which here conjoin to form the Khotan Darya, and has been famous for its jade for well over two millennia.<br/><br/>In times past trade routes crossed the desert to the north all the way to Kuqa, and as recently as 2007 this link has been re-established for the first time in centuries with the opening of a second Desert Highway leading to Aksu, distant some 424km to the north.<br/><br/>In 1006 Khotan was conquered by Uighur Muslims from Kashgar, and since that time the city remains a very Uighur place.
The important oasis of Yarkand (Shache) was once the seat of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom and an important caravanserai on the Southern Silk Road. Today it is a predominantly Uighur city with a population of 375,000 producing cotton, wheat, corn and fruit (notably pomegranates, pears and grapes) as well as oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>In times past Yarkand was of particular importance as the northern terminus for the strategically significant trade route to Leh, capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, across the Karakoram Pass (5,575m., 18,286 ft).
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a name given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
The so-called Mosul School of Painting refers to a style of miniature painting that developed in northern Iraq in the late 12th to early 13th century under the patronage of the Zangid dynasty (1127–1222). In technique and style the Mosul school was similar to the painting of the Seljuq Turks, who controlled Iraq at that time, but the Mosul artists had a sharper sense of realism based on the subject matter and degree of detail in the painting rather than on representation in three dimensions, which did not occur.<br/><br/> Most of the Mosul iconography was Seljuq – for example, the use of figures seated cross-legged in a frontal position. Certain symbolic elements however, such as the crescent and serpents, were derived from the classical Mesopotamian repertory.<br/><br/> Most Mosul paintings were illustrations of manuscripts—mainly scientific works, animal books, and lyric poetry. A frontispiece painting, now held in the Bibliothèque National, Paris, dating from a late 12th century copy of Galen's medical treatise, the Kitab al-diriyak ('Book of Antidotes'), is a good example of the earlier work of the Mosul school. It depicts four figures surrounding a central, seated figure who holds a crescent-shaped halo. The painting is in a variety of whole hues; reds, blues, greens, and gold. The Küfic lettering is blue.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
The Tacuinum (sometimes Taccuinum) Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha تقويم الصحة ('Maintenance of Health'), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân was a Christian physician born in Baghdad and who died in 1068. He sets forth the six elements necessary to maintain daily health: food and drink, air and the environment, activity and rest, sleep and wakefulness, secretions and excretions of humours, changes or states of mind (happiness, anger, shame, etc). According to Ibn Butlân, illnesses are the result of changes in the balance of some of these elements, therefore he recommended a life in harmony with nature in order to maintain or recover one’s health.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân also teaches us to enjoy each season of the year, the consequences of each type of climate, wind and snow. He points out the importance of spiritual wellbeing and mentions, for example, the benefits of listening to music, dancing or having a pleasant conversation.<br/><br/> Aimed at a cultured lay audience, the text exists in several variant Latin versions, the manuscripts of which are characteristically profusely illustrated. The short paragraphs of the treatise were freely translated into Latin in mid-thirteenth-century Palermo or Naples, continuing an Italo-Norman tradition as one of the prime sites for peaceable inter-cultural contact between the Islamic and European worlds.<br/><br/> Four handsomely illustrated complete late fourteenth-century manuscripts of the Taccuinum, all produced in Lombardy, survive, in Vienna, Paris, Liège and Rome, as well as scattered illustrations from others, as well as fifteenth-century codices.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
The Turpan Oasis was a strategically significant centre on Xinjiang’s Northern Silk Route, site of the ancient cities of Yarkhoto (Jiaohe) and Karakhoja (Gaochang). Chinese armies first entered Turpan in the 2nd century BC, during the reign of Han Emperor Wu Di (141-87) when the oasis was a centre of Indo-European Tocharian culture.<br/><br/> Turpan retained a distinctly Buddhist character until the time of the Chagatai Khanate in the 13th century, when Islam gradually became the dominant religion.
The Turpan Oasis was a strategically significant centre on Xinjiang’s Northern Silk Route, site of the ancient cities of Yarkhoto (Jiaohe) and Karakhoja (Gaochang). Chinese armies first entered Turpan in the 2nd century BC, during the reign of Han Emperor Wu Di (141-87) when the oasis was a centre of Indo-European Tocharian culture.<br/><br/> Turpan retained a distinctly Buddhist character until the time of the Chagatai Khanate in the 13th century, when Islam gradually became the dominant religion.
In this carefullly posed late 19th century photograph, the woman appears dressed as a bride preparing to ride to her marriage.
Siyah Kalem or 'Black Pen' is the name given to the 15th century school of painting attributed to Mehmed Siyah Kalem. Nothing is known of his life, but his work indicates that he was of Central Asian Turkic origin, and thoroughly familiar with camp and military life. The paintings appear in the 'Conqueror’s Albums', so named because two portraits of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror are present in one of them.<br/><br/> The albums are made up of miniatures taken from manuscripts of the 14th, 15th, and early 16th centuries, and one series of paintings is inscribed 'work of Master Muḥammad Siyah Kalem'. Something of the style and techniques of Chinese paintings is apparent in these, and an acquaintance with Buddhist art, particularly in the depictions of grotesque demonic figures.<br/><br/> It seems likely that certain paintings contained in the 'Conqueror's Albums' are of Chinese origin and may have been used as stylistic guides for painters in the Siyah Kalem tradition.
Siyah Kalem or 'Black Pen' is the name given to the 15th century school of painting attributed to Mehmed Siyah Kalem. Nothing is known of his life, but his work indicates that he was of Central Asian Turkic origin, and thoroughly familiar with camp and military life. The paintings appear in the 'Conqueror’s Albums', so named because two portraits of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror are present in one of them.<br/><br/> The albums are made up of miniatures taken from manuscripts of the 14th, 15th, and early 16th centuries, and one series of paintings is inscribed 'work of Master Muḥammad Siyah Kalem'. Something of the style and techniques of Chinese paintings is apparent in these, and an acquaintance with Buddhist art, particularly in the depictions of grotesque demonic figures.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
The Imam Asim Shrine and other tombs can be found 23 kilometres from Khotan (Hotan) on the southern Silk Road. It is the site of a huge pilgrimage each May.<br/><br/>Imam Asim was one of the first Islamic missionaries to visit this area.<br/><br/>Khotan traces its history back at least as far as the 3rd century BCE, when the eldest son of the Indian emperor Asoka is said to have settled here. It was of great importance on the Silk Road, and is claimed to have been the first place outside China to have cultivated silk.<br/><br/>It sits astride the Karakash or ‘Black Jade’ and Yurungkash or ‘White Jade’ Rivers, which here conjoin to form the Khotan Darya, and has been famous for its jade for well over two millennia.<br/><br/>In times past trade routes crossed the desert to the north all the way to Kuqa, and as recently as 2007 this link has been re-established for the first time in centuries with the opening of a second Desert Highway leading to Aksu, distant some 424km to the north.<br/><br/>In 1006 Khotan was conquered by Uighur Muslims from Kashgar, and since that time the city remains a very Uighur place.
Around 840 AD a group of Turkic people known as the Uighur were displaced from their ancestral homelands in the Mongolian Steppe, and driven south by Kirghiz raiders. The Uighur moved into the Tarim Basin, settling in the old oasis cities of Kuqa and Aksu before gradually spreading around the rim of the Taklamakan Desert. Here they underwent an extraordinary transformation, changing from pastoral nomads to settled oasis dwellers and cultivators.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Edwin Lord Weeks (1849 – 1903), American artist and Orientalist, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1849. He was a pupil of Léon Bonnat and of Jean-Léon Gérôme, at Paris. He made many voyages to the East, and was distinguished as a painter of oriental scenes.<br/><br> Weeks' parents were affluent spice and tea merchants from Newton, a suburb of Boston and as such they were able to accept, probably encourage, and certainly finance their son's youthful interest in painting and travelling.<br/><br> As a young man Edwin Lord Weeks visited the Florida Keys to draw and also travelled to Surinam in South America. His earliest known paintings date from 1867 when Edwin Lord Weeks was eighteen years old. In 1895 he wrote and illustrated a book of travels, From the Black Sea through Persia and India.
Edward William Lane (1801-76) was a British Orientalist, translator and Arabic scholar who lived in Ottoman Cairo from 1825-28. So fascinated was he with Egypt, he dressed as an Ottoman Turk and spent much time sketching the backstreets of Cairo. Upon his return to England he translated the novel ‘Arabian Nights’ [‘1001 nights’] and ‘Selections from the Qur’an’.
Siyah Kalem or 'Black Pen' is the name given to the 15th century school of painting attributed to Mehmed Siyah Kalem. Nothing is known of his life, but his work indicates that he was of Central Asian Turkic origin, and thoroughly familiar with camp and military life. The paintings appear in the 'Conqueror’s Albums,' so named because two portraits of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror are present in one of them. The albums are made up of miniatures taken from manuscripts of the 14th, 15th, and early 16th centuries, and one series of paintings is inscribed 'work of Master Muḥammad Siyah Kalem.' Something of the style and techniques of Chinese paintings is apparent in these, and an acquaintance with Buddhist art, particularly in the depictions of grotesque demonic figures.
Shadow play (Chinese: 皮影戏, pí yĭng xì) or shadow puppetry is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment using opaque, often articulated figures in front of an illuminated backdrop to create the illusion of moving images. It is popular in various cultures. At present, more than 20 countries are known to have shadow show troupes.<br/><br/>Shadow puppetry originated during the Han Dynasty when one of the concubines of Emperor Wu of Han died from an illness. The emperor was devastated, and he summoned his court officers to bring his beloved back to life. The officers made a shape of the concubine using donkey leather. Her joints were animated using 11 separate pieces of the leather, and adorned with painted clothes. Using an oil lamp they made her shadow move, bringing her back to life. Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming Dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. In the 13th century, the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to other Southeastern Asian countries.<br/><br/>The earliest shadow theatre screens were made of mulberry paper. The storytellers generally used the art to tell events between various war kingdoms or stories of Buddhist sources. Today, puppets made of leather and moved on sticks are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths. In Gansu province, it is accompanied by Daoqing music, while in Jilin, accompanying Huanglong music forms some of the basis of modern opera.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a name given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814) was a French naturalist and explorer who made several voyages to southeast Asia between 1769 and 1781. He published this two-volume account of his voyage of 1774-81 in 1782. <br/><br/> Volume 1 deals exclusively with India, whose culture Sonnerat very much admired, and is especially noteworthy for its extended discussion of religion in India, Hinduism in particular. The book is illustrated with engravings based on Sonnerat’s drawings. Among the most interesting illustrations are Sonnerat’s pictures of various Hindu deities.