Sheikh Majid opens exhibition of earliest photographs of Islamic pilgrimage centres

Organised by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority in cooperation with Germany-based Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums, To the Holy Lands presents photographs taken by some of the pioneers of photography in the Arab world.

The rare collection of photographs belongs to the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums (rem), which the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority recently chose as its first European partner for exhibitions.

His Highness Sheikh Majid said:

"Through exhibitions like To the Holy Lands, the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority is seeking to enhance understanding of the history of the Arab region's art. Rediscovering the work of pioneering artists such as those featured in To the Holy Lands will inspire greater artistic aspiration and excellence in the Arab world. Events such as this also serve to promote greater public engagement with the arts, which is critical to the development of Dubai as a vibrant cultural hub."

HE Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, Managing Director of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, said:

"In this exhibition, it has been possible, for the first time, to present the pioneers of photography in the Arab world in a manner appropriate to their achievement. To the Holy Lands takes us back to the encounter during the nineteenth century between the newly discovered medium of photography and the Arab-Muslim world, which gave rise to some extraordinary works of art. This exhibition is part of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority's efforts to celebrate and showcase the very best in art that the Arab world has seen. Event like these help to enhance Dubai's role as a global cultural and artistic hub that hosts and showcases an eclectic variety of local, regional and international art."

One of the highlights of the exhibition is Mohammed Sadiq Bey's photographs of the pilgrimage centres Mecca and Medina. There are only two other collections of Bey's photographs in the world - one belongs to the royal family of Saudi Arabia while the other is in France.

Other photographs displayed at the exhibition include those taken by the physician al-Sayyid Abd al-Ghaffar from Mecca, an important pioneer of Arab photography. He created fascinating portraits of people right in the middle of pilgrimage centres . Al-Sayyd abd al-Ghaffar was a friend of Christiaan Snouck-Hurgronje, a Dutch expert in Arab Culture, who took the first portraits of Muslim pilgrims, from across the world, from Java to Timbuktu, and from Maghreb to Baku and in Mecca. He was also the first European who documented different social classes in the region like Sheikhs, Sharifs, Pashas and scholars or citizens from Mecca.

The exhibition also features photographs of Jakob August Lorent, another pioneer in the history of photography in the Arab world. Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums possess the only collection of Lorent's photographs of Jerusalem dating back to 1846.

The presentation of these photos is of particular interest to photography and art enthusiasts in the Middle East as it visualises the tradition of pilgrimage in past centuries with the earliest photographs.

The exhibition runs from 15 September to 4 November, 2008 at the Lobby of Building 5 in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). A catalogue with reprints of a selection of the exhibited photographs and introductory remarks by the curators Dr. Claude W. Sui and Dr. Franz Waller has been published in Arabic, English and German.