Art and Culture in Houston, Texas, Part 2 ISLAMIC ART

This is the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

Arts of Islamic Lands: Selections from The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait

Jan 31, 2015 - Jan 30, 2016

Law Building, Ground Floor 

The al-Sabah Collection is one of the greatest privately held collections of Islamic art in the world.

Display objects range from carpets and architectural fragments to exquisite ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, scientific instruments, and manuscripts.

There are 250 Objects from the 8th to 18th centuries—made in North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, India, the Iberian Peninsula, and Central Asia presenting an impressive spectrum of Islamic art.—demonstrating the techniques, craftsmanship, and aesthetics in Islamic visual culture.

Among the highlights are a 16th-century Ottoman Turkish prayer carpet; a glass mosque lamp from 14th-century Cairo

 opulent Mughal jewelry crafted in the refined kundan technique, including a brilliant bird pendant fabricated in late 16th-century India from gold, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and rock crystals

Turban ornament, India, second half 17th century, fabricated in gold with champlevé and over-painted enamels set with emeralds and diamonds,

Gold ear rings studded with diamonds, rubies

Emerald mirror back...

85-carat Emerald from India [17th century] inscribed with the Throne verse from the Qurán which was believed to protect the wearer from evil

JADE Pen box and inkwell studded with rubies in gold lattice work

Lidded cup and saucer, India, c. mid-17th century, fabricated from gold with champlevé and painted enamels, 

Gold Huqqa or water pipe reservoir... 2168 gm gold here, so must be from a royal court

Gold presentation coin, Indian Moghul,1639, struck in the name of emperor Shah Jehan in Lahore

Rhyming inscriptions on both sides

Early gold jewelry from Afghanistan and Syria; 

This is a 16th-century Ottoman Turkish prayer carpet. 

Floral carpet with 11 different types of flowers...

Folio from a Qur’an manuscript, Afghanistan, 9th-10th century, ink, colors and gold on vellum

Weaponry

Turkey... Knife. JADE hilt, studded with RUBIES IN GOLD LATTICE WORK

IVORY...powder flask, container for gun powder while hunting. Powder came out thru the antelope's mounth when the brass handle was pressed.

CRYSTAL hilt...

Calligraphy tools in ivory, coral

WINDOWS, DOORS, SCREENS

Paintings... Gold , ink colors on Paper. 

Miniature paintings and poetry in gold on paper, 

Pen case with portrait. Paper mache, gold under lacquer polish

Tiles

chess pieces in gem stones

MOTHER OF PEARL inlay on wood