Muscat, An exhibition titled “Gardens of Paradise: The Language of Flowers in Iznic Ceramics” was inaugurated at the Splendours of Islam Gallery of the National Museum today, under the patronage of HH Dr. Mona bint Fahd Al Said, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) for International Cooperation andVice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum.

The exhibition comes within the joint cooperation between the National Museum and the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum.

The exhibition aims to shed light on the art of Iznik ceramics decorated with flowers and the special symbols it embodies related to evoking Qur’anic descriptions that recall the gardens of Paradise. The exhibition will continue for a whole year (from 15 December 2021 until 1 December 2022).

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Saud Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Under-Secretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, Manuel Rabaté, Director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, Dr. Soraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director at Lovure Abu Dhabi and Abdullah al-Hashemi, Senior International Affairs and Cultural Diplomacy Officer at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, in addition to a number of people interested in cultural and museum affairs.

Jamal Hassan Al Moosawi, Secretary-General of the National Museum, said: “The National Museum is honoured to host in an exhibition from the Louvre Abu Dhabi titled: “Gardens of Paradise: The Language of Flowers in Iznik Ceramics”, an embodiment of the bilateral cooperation, which was established in 2017, when a number of Omani museum artefacts were loaned to be displayed in the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, to introduce visitors to the civilisation of the land of frankincense and the civilised role of Oman on the Maritime Silk Road.

The exhibition is abounding with selected collections of Iznik Ceramic decorated with flowers that were naturally depicted on artworks, as Ottoman art in general and ceramic arts in particular passed a turning point in the 16th century. The skilled craftsmen and potters enriched their visual repertoire to include artistic representation for the harmonious flowers of roses, birch, carnations, and tulips, this pattern of the “four flowers” departs from the previous geometric patterns, and focuses on depicting the types of flowers that were growing at that time in the gardens of Istanbul.

Some flowers also had a special symbolic significance, such as the tulip, whose Turkish name is (Lalah). The shape of the flower when opened, appears to draw the word “Allah”, as for the rose, it is only associated in our minds with the name of the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) and by recalling the Qur’anic descriptions that mention the Gardens of Paradise, and this is an invitation to the visitor to contemplate the meanings of flowers and their connection to Paradise.

Iznik is a small city in Turkey in the Marmara Plain that was known during the Byzantine era as “Nicaea”, about 90 km from Istanbul. The city is famous for its ceramics industry, as it considered one of the greatest centres of the Ottoman ceramics industries in Turkey. The decoration of pottery with roses and flowers comes as a kind of evoking the bliss that Allah will bestow upon Muslims in the Gardens of Paradise, and in which they will encounter what is more beautiful than these worldly flowers.

The cooperation between the National Museum in the Sultanate of Oman and the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum started in the year 2017 following the signing of an agreement to lend Omani museum artefacts of various historical dimensions represented in the historical treasure of al-Qubbah, which includes more than 400 silver dirhams dating back to the early Islamic eras, and a shell incense burner carrying frankincense petrified. This cooperation was in support of the objectives of the National Museum that were drawn up since its establishment, including participating in highlighting the cultural and historical heritage of Oman at the regional and international levels, with the aim of reaching a wide segment of the public, and strengthening the bonds of museum cooperation with leading international museums, in a manner that achieves the advancement of the name of Oman.

Source: Oman News Agency