Until March 20, 2022 the Museum für Islamische Kunst zu Berlin, in cooperation with the Sarikhani Collection, shows the exhibition Iran: Five Millennia of Art and Culture (English catalogue: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr; German catalogue Iran Kunst und Kultur aus fünf Jahrtausenden: Amazon.de).
With the help of some 360 objects from the Sarikhani Collection in London, alongside exhibits from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the chronological exhibition documents the cultural history of Iran from the early civilisations, Elam and the ancient Kings of Persia with their seat in Persepolis to the incursions of Genghis Khan and the important imperial city of Isfahan right through to the beginning of the modern era. Highlights include objects from and information about the empires of the Achaemenids and Sasanids, the formation of a Persian Islamic culture, the extraordinary artistic achievements of the Islamic Middle Ages from the 9th to 13th centuries, and the Golden Age of the Safavids.
The catalogue features articles intended for the general public, but written by 28 specialists. They discuss different aspects based on the exhibits. Each period is introduced in chronological order by an essay which explains the historical and cultural-historical context, thereby providing a framework for the texts on specific subjects – without claiming, however, to offer a comprehensive historical representation or a uniform approach.
Iran has played a central role as a site for innovation, as a melting pot and cultural powerhouse connecting the eastern Mediterranean, the lands south of the Persian Gulf, the Indus Valley and Central Asia. Yet not only did it draw inspiration from the regions around it, it also exerted a lasting influence on its neighbours through tremendous cultural creativity. In addition, Iran: Five Millennia of Art and Culture presents a rich kaleidoscope of the cultural creativity of urban societies.
Situated between deserts, mountain ranges and bodies of water, the region was home to great historical civilisations, yet its achievements as a transregional force in art and culture are largely unknown to all but experts in the field.. This despite the fact that Iran is not only located in one of the oldest and most important cultural regions in the world, but has also been home to key cultural, artistic and scientific trends and discoveries that have had wide-ranging impacts, reaching all the way to Europe.
As a ‘cultural highway’ between Asia, Africa and Europe, the land of Persia is marked by extraordinary ethnic and linguistic diversity. Migration, the dissemination of cultural technologies along the Silk Road(s) and the transfer of knowledge across spatial, temporal and social boundaries have repeatedly given rise to innovation and creativity. With control over access to the major trade routes and important seaways, the Iranian plateau has occupied an important geostrategic position well into the twentieth century.
A specifically Iranian cultural identity emerged from Farsi as a language of instruction and cultural production, an identity that was continuously transforming, particularly among the cross-regional networks of traders and scholars and at moments of radical change, such as war or forced migration. Time and again, invaders and invaded alike adopted the language and culture, renewing and re-forming it as they went.
Ute Franke and Stefan Weber write that, among the highlights of Iran’s early history are millennia-old, almost cubist-looking clay pots, solid gold beakers and bronzes that attest to the broad artistic networks of the early cities. With the Achaemenid Empire of the mid-sixth century BCE, Iran emerged from the shadow of its great neighbours Assyria and Babylon. Thus began the age of the Great Kings of Persia, the Shahanshahs. After an intermezzo under the heirs of Alexander the Great, the Parthian Empire (247 BCE–224 CE) rose to power as a new rival to Rome. Sculpted drinking horns and exquisite cups are the main attractions of this section.
The Sasanians (224–651) were the last of the great pre-Islamic dynasties. The Arab conquest of the seventh century brought the language and script of the Quran to the Iranian plateau. Early Quran manuscripts shown in the exhibition reveal the significance of the written word. The new alphabet would shape aesthetic sensibilities, e.g. represented in the exhibition by monumental, very modern-looking bowls with radial calligraphy. The religion was new, but from the eighth century on the caliphate of Baghdad increasingly adopted ancient Iranian and Mesopotamian traditions. The empire of the caliphs – one of the largest in world history – opened up new cultural horizons.
In the ninth century, the combination of international expertise and trade with China led to a genuine ‘revolution’ in ceramic production. Especially in the region of modern-day Iran, artistic and technological innovation remains a constant of cultural production to this day. Architectural ceramics and architecture reached new heights under the Turkish Seljuqs (1040–1194). From the twelfth century on, Kashan developed into a leading hub and melting pot of the ceramic industry, joining an epoch-spanning circle of outstanding international production centres such as Delft, Meissen, Iznik and Jingdezhen.
Another recurring theme is the contact with China and Central Asia. This includes trade networks as well as devastating Mongol invasions beginning in 1220. Wholesale destruction was followed by reconstruction and new heights of achievement: like their predecessors, the Ilkhanids (1256–1353) and Timurids (1370–1507) adapted Persian artistic and architectural traditions, enriching them with their own Sino-Mongolian culture.
Persian now became the language of culture and literature for the shahs, sultans and Mughal emperors from Istanbul to Samarqand and Delhi. The political foundations of modern-day Iran first emerged under the Safavids (1501–1722). During that ‘First Global Age’, Iran exported luxury goods, fine silks, carpets and ceramics to destinations including Europe, which increasingly became a point of reference.
The chronological tour ends in the eighteenth century. Under the Qajars (1779–1925), Iran became a nation-state, and its artistic production continued to develop dynamically in the context of global modernism.
Ute Franke and Stefan Weber stress that, today, Iran is anchored in the collective memory primarily through the political events that have unfolded since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the exhibition seeks to detach the history and artistic legacy of pre-modern Iran from this bias and present Persian culture in its transregional significance and vitality.
Edited by Ute Franke, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, Stefan Weber with contributions by 28 specialists: Iran: Five Millennia of Art and Culture. Hardcover, Hirmer Verlag, November 2021, 396 pages, 610 color illustrations, 24 x 29 cm, 2.1 kg. Order the English edition from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr; deutsche Ausgabe Iran: Kunst und Kultur aus fünf Jahrtausenden bei Amazon.de.
For a better reading, quotations and partial quotations in this exhibition / book review are not between quotation marks.
Exhibition and book review added on February 2, 2022 at 11:38 Berlin time.
