Muhammad on museum walls

Curators take care in presenting Islamic art and manuscripts depicting the prophet.

While lethal riots persist in the Middle
East and American cartoonists and editors wring their hands over what
it means to publish pictures of Muhammad, the Western world’s curators
of Islamic art whisper and wonder.

As they understand it, the Koran does not forbid representations
of Muhammad, though other revered texts have led millions of Muslims to
scorn the idea. They know that many Islamic artists have taken on the
subject. And they know that pictures of Muhammad — not caricatures, but
respectful representations, executed by and for Muslims, sometimes with
the prophet’s face shrouded by a veil, sometimes not — can be found in
museums throughout Europe and North America.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s collection includes two
portrayals of Muhammad and one "verbal portrait" full of ornate
calligraphy and rich colors. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
has three. The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art has four. The largest
collection of such images, experts say, is probably that of the Topkapi
Museum in Istanbul….

One is "The Mi’raj of Muhammad," an ink-and-watercolor manuscript
painting made by an unknown artist in Shiraz, Iran, in 1517 AD and
intended for private use. It shows the prophet, his face mostly
obscured, on his night journey to heaven with the angel Gabriel, a
central event in the collection of Islamic texts known as the Hadith.

Then there’s the "Hilye (Verbal Portrait of the Prophet
Muhammad)," an intricate work of ink calligraphy, watercolor and gold,
made by Turkish artist Niyazi Efendi in 1853-1854 and intended for
display on a wall in private or public….

A spokeswoman said none of the Met’s depictions of Muhammad — one from
15th century Afghanistan, one from 16th century Uzbekistan, one from
16th century Turkey — had been displayed for years. More