The Art of Islam at The Met and The Louvre: Foreign Yet Familiar

Today, at a pivotal moment in world history, two great museums beckon us to explore the splendor of Islamic art -- lifting the veil on our shared cultural heritage. The objects on display in the Islamic galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York -- and The Louvre in Paris -- reveal a roadmap of connections. This explains why the “foreign” seems familiar. The art of Islam reflects 14 centuries of changing political and cultural landscapes -- across three continents.
The term “Islamic art” - coined by 19th-century art historians - includes ALL ART produced in Muslim lands from the 7th century forward, from Spain to Morocco, Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia, and India, to the borders of China. Universal museums like The Louvre and The Metropolitan help dispel the idea that cultures are exclusive, when in fact, they are intertwined.

[@magicknight13]

Thank you for these uploads! Among all these wonderful and incredible works of art, that "splashware" and that pitcher were absolutely astounding

[@UMBUBA]

Al-Sūfī-the Persian astronomer, was a major contributor to the translation into Arabic of the Hellenistic astronomy that had been centered in Alexandria, Egypt. His was the first to attempt to relate the Greek with the traditional Arabic star names and constellations, which were completely unrelated and overlapped in complicated ways.

[@gulanourjanova2561]

Am I right to recognize the voice of Philippe de Montebello in the video? It is wow! My respect to the great man!

[@eminmammadov5339]

You are damn right!

[@emeryroe2487]

Brilliant! What a wonderful presentation, and timely.

[@lisengel2498]

Its so beautifull …and the Music and song is just so wonderfull 🎵💜🎶

[@jonathaneffemey944]

Thanks so much for posting

[@davehud2552]

The writing, Art-like each like a peacock beautifully drawn. I like every pieces of history I witness watching this, I feel proud it exist in this world maybe someday I can come & see it myself. the patterns crafted, designed or embroidered is unique & gentled so I love it dear❤️💮.

[@lisengel2498]

And - I am convinced that art and cultures are intertwined in many secret and important ways - maybe because all Human being recognize beauty, devotion and songs of longing and love 🎵💜🎶

[@firouz4296]

The calligraphy at 11:18 is Farsi and not arabic! It's a Hafiz poem and NOT a sentence from or about Koran. Huge difference.

[@deepskull366]

THANK YOU FOR THE INFO.

[@mimimusa757]

Written in perso-arabic script ( a modified Arabic script for farsi language )

[@magicknight13]

Wow thank you for informing!

[@Icutekitty18]

Thank you for mentioning that. as a moroccan myself I am sick of arabs wanting to arabize everything including us people of morocco, they want to eradicate our identity and race, which is Amazigh not Arab.

[@javedsultan4830]

FArsi is written in arabic script.. you sagg

[@shobhabroota]

Mesmerizing

[@dawneabdulal-bari9313]

Nice 🌺 Many Thanks for presenting this excellent segment 🦋

[@biswajithota2524]

Mesmerizing arts and artifacts.

[@edward2175]

An amazing journey through this intricate expression of Love. Ravished.

[@lisengel2498]

I find this art just so attractive - 🎶💜🎵

[@Simon17]

خوب بود

[@Alfablue227]

Islamic art is absolutely beautiful!❤

[@abacus749]

8.01mins This 12th.century lamp has cutwork panels which have perhaps been cut using metal dies and a press? The earliest examples of die cutting in Europe is in the 18th century ,but the Arab Artisans may have been using such methods 600 years earlier. On this lamp you can clearly see where the dies were attached when it was being pressed. I would suggest that this lamp is made of brass ( an alloy of copper and Zinc) rather than just copper?

[@Wakobear.]

Beautiful Though I wish you showed some Timurid glazed brickwork (Banna'i/Hazarbaf)

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

❤

[@deepskull366]

FAITH IN HUMANITY RESTORED.

[@svitlanahalushevska8324]

Если бы я могла начать жизнь сначала я бы занялась изучением искусства люблю старый текстиль ковры картины музей искусств в Будапеште это восхитительно

[@user-po3ko9yb5w]

Beautiful how they ended by the uniting of worlds , that is the only way forward

[@sonarbangla8711]

To me the best part of Muslim art is tiling and the most beautiful are Persian Mosque mineret.

[@farhadalavimehr]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@freealter]

“Lifting the veil” certainly a choice metaphor

[@OpisCossack]

the Spanish stuff was quite nice

[@Grethko]

At 9 minutes, do they really describe the temple mount, center of Judaism as "site of a former roman temple"?

[@MFlare-ne4tc]

It is

[@ahmedelkhwaga2751]

true tho

[@UMBUBA]

Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi- the the Persian Mathematician and polymath who is The Father of Algebra. The name Algorithm is named after him. Al-Khwarezmi became Algorithm

[@kristianpaju7432]

Naguis buvertus asquo islamic kita memang gereja namun bangga dengan warisan muslim.. lihgvio adx xdut

[@s.m.ershadsalim5823]

I got million dollar feeling from these vedio

[@svitlanahalushevska8324]

Присоединяюсь прекрасно

[@montiswiss]

Persian Greek Roman’s they inherited their knowledge basically from old Egyptian Phoenician and babilon in irak all are semetic tribes related to each other, even the main world religions are from semetic origin, Oman and Jemen have very old civilizations. The Arabs of today are the grand grand children’s of these tribes , Arabs from Mecca and Medina who defeated the persian Greek and Roman’s were very welcomed by the native people from Iraq till North Africa since they were ethnically and culturally as well as language wise very related.

[@dunhammusicgroup]

Geometry and Algebra so they were master mathematicians.

[@Icutekitty18]

47:00 The Ottoman empire map is wrong they never conquered Spain or Morocco, I am not sure about the rest of the African countries though. They tried invading Morocco but they were defeated at The wady labne battle and were pushed back to what is known today as the country of Algeria.

[@fainatselnik267]

Beutiful art and nice documentary. I was completely appalled by Metropolitan Museum of Art placing ancient divine pieces strait into modern pretty replicas that half of admires could have in our own bathrooms. Replication of Moroccan court using mixture of modern decor and stunning pieces of the past looks like beautifully illustrated old books augmented where the missing pages with new pages done in the same style. Profanation of idea in the whole glory. Rather silly.

[@svitlanahalushevska8324]

Демократия как можно больше людей хотят приобщиться к искусству я благодарна за фильм просто смотрю языка не знаю,

[@anskat5448]

the collection is indeed beautiful, but people voicing over with a quasi french accent are ridiculous and vexing

[@miraccanbakr9739]

16. Century Turkish quartz tiles world in the best !

[@parhamgeranmayeh3623]

It's persian words 11:18

[@kimberlyj4644]

Arabic calligraphy is so breathtaking....

[@Pleisianax1]

Try as I might, I find most of Islamic art repetitive, unimaginative, and largely stale. It's abhorrence of naturalism doesn't help either (only Persian art or art inspired by Persian prototypes seems to be an exception in aesthetic terms)

[@TWOCOWS1]

So, Ibn Khaldun was right 800 years ago when he wrote that the so called "Islamic" science and art were actually "Ajam" (greater Iranian world and the Hellenic world) science and art.. Just look at this entire video: from the book of the astronomer Sufi Shirazi (the discoverer of the Andromeda galaxy) , to the astrolabes, the ceramics, the calligraphic works, the architecture, the fabrics, the utensils...... all are greater Iranian (Iran-Afghanistan-Central Asia-Kurdistan), or done by them working for the Mughals of India or the Ottomans of Turkey---that is, -except the two pieces from Egypt shown in this entire video! Geeeez vizzz, only the the very end of this vid has anything at Met or the Louvre that cover any other groups! So, why not just call it "Islamic art of the Iranic World at the Met"? I have visited it many many times, and that is the correct statement to make.

[@MANCO513]

Yes and All from todays Afghanistan. The entire tradition was born under the timurid herat empire. And 90% of the paintings in tahmasb book of kings are made by Afghans.

[@TWOCOWS1]

@@MANCO513 So very true. Nearly all the people of Afghanistan and Iran (Ariana and Persia) are of greater Iranian world, in their roots and at present. There is a Turkic addition in Central Asia and Anatolia, but that can be distinguished easily by its simplicity. The art from Herat is supreme: better than those from either Samarkand or Isfahan. It was the apex. (And yet, the bloody British with the help of Abdulrahman Khan of Kabul, dynamited most of the priceless buildings and art work there in the 1880s. God damn them both)

[@MANCO513]

@TWOCOWS1 can see u have good info. Very good. But there is no iranic world, there is only khorasan and khorasani world. The name Iran means khorasan. Iran was given to khorasan in the book of kings by Daqighi or Ferdowsi 1000 years ago. More than 90% of places in the book of kings of khorasan are in todays Afghanistan. The rest 10% are located in modern day Iran, tajikistan, Turkmenistan, uzbekistan and so.. . The country of Iran is making big crime and No one can see it, it's ridiculous.

[@TWOCOWS1]

@@MANCO513 You are the enemy of yourself, isolating yourself into a smaller and weaker world, and this to the delight of your enemies. Enjoy yourself.

[@MANCO513]

@TWOCOWS1 a typical Iranian says this.

[@christianfrommuslim]

Curator Sheila Canby unwittingly makes a big mistake. There have been many changes in the words of the Quran, from the beginning until 1924. This used to be known only to Islamic Western academic scholars - the Islamic ones covered it up even from their own people, and the Western academics either were too ivory scholar or too afraid to make their findings known. The truth is easily uncovered now, in KZbin videos and books, such as by the best-selling scholar Ibn Waraq, and the entertaining and well-documented adventure novel "The Topkapi Secret" by Terry Kelhawk.

[@bahramsadoughi2042]

Islam don't have art it is persian (Iranian) art.

[@MFlare-ne4tc]

Did you even watch the video !!💀

[@firouz4296]

Most -if not all - of the arts shown existed before the islamic invasion! As a matter of fact they are pre-islamic.

[@mozartwa1]

Talking about all the art shown in the film as Islamic art is the same as talking about the art of modernism, impressionism or post-impressionism as Christian art. Art critics of the 19th century were pathetic idiots who divided art according to the map and calendar, and not according to the morphology of its origin. It's time to stop this idiotic practice! Just because an image contains the Arabic alphabet does not mean that it is Islamic. In the Islamic country of Afghanistan, a monument depicting Buddha was carved into a rock. Everyone knows perfectly well what happened to him later - and this was done by people who consider themselves true followers of Islam. The very term “Islamic” or “Christian” or “Hindu” means one thing - religious doctrines. And if art does not follow the dictates of these doctrines, such a term cannot be applied to it.

[@siminazami653]

This art is not från islam .this art is from Iran

[@gancarzpl]

Too many very opinionated women.

[@johnstrange1382]

The most steril unemotional bland stuff in the world of art.

[@rickstorm8948]

better than any American art..... lol Washington Monument a tall pillar.