Portrayals of Muhammed

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Subject: Portrayals of Muhammed
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:44:44 -0500
From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org>
To: dave () farber net

Artilce in this morning's Washington Post discusses the portrayal of
Muhammed in classical Islamic art, and suggests that the ban on images
is not only of more recent origin (18th century), but is more
characteristic of the Sunni branch of Islam, while Shiites tend to
permit it.

The article identifies several famous portraits, including four in
Washington-area museums.  However, there are no illustrations, even in
the print  edition of the paper:


In Art Museums, Portraits Illuminate A Religious Taboo

By Paul Richard
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Page C01

All depictions of Muhammad -- or so we hear daily -- are now and have
always been forbidden in Islam. Art's history disputes this. True, that
strict taboo today is honored now by almost all Muslims, but old
paintings of the prophet -- finely brushed expensive ones, made
carefully and piously by Muslims and for them -- are well known to most
curators of Islamic art.

There are numerous examples in public institutions in Istanbul, Vienna,
Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Los Angeles and New York.
        

Four are here in Washington in the Smithsonian Institution on the Mall.
Three are in the Freer Gallery of Art. The fourth is next door in the
Freer's sister museum, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

*  *  *
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021302407.html







Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation

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