Word: koran
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...thing everyone "knows" about Islam is that it prohibited artists from painting the human figure. In fact, this was not wholly true. The Koran had nothing to say on the matter. Prophetic tradition banished figures from the walls of mosques, for fear of idolatry; but there was no rule against secular figure painting. Therefore, the decoration of all the great mosques of Islam was nonfigurative, but there was nothing heretical about the secular miniatures−of astrological images, courtly scenes or scientific inventions−represented in this show. Arab culture was pragmatic. Almost everything the Italian Renaissance knew of medicine...
...overwhelmingly abstract and, to a Western eye, puzzlingly so. This is partly due to the circumstance that, illiterate in Arabic, a Westerner cannot decipher the inscriptions or savor the interplay between conceptual and visual meaning in Islamic calligraphy. One can visually enjoy the writing on an 8th century Koran page: the angular Kufic script done in a swordsman's strokes, decisive and muscular; the rich gold foliations round the white chapter heading; the placement of red dots, fit to make Mondriaan despair. Nevertheless, it is frustrating not to be able to read the page. (In a less exalted context...
Fahd had the Koran-based education of a desert prince, but his six sons have been sent to schools in Europe and the U.S. Unlike Faisal, Fahd has a weakness for certain Western luxuries; he drew criticism from conservative Saudis when he spent five months vacationing in Europe last year, staying there even through the holy month of Ramadan. Still, he is unlikely to loosen up the country's rigid Islamic ways abruptly...
Despite his wealth and power, Faisal lived simply and ascetically; his code was the Koran and his customs those of a Bedouin Arab. He neither smoked nor drank, prayed five times a day, and was anxiously concerned with the welfare of his subjects. Thus he continued the tradition of the majlis, or weekly royal audience, at which Saudis were free to approach their King with a message or a petition. No matter how farfetched or long-winded the complaints, Faisal would listen patiently. "If anyone feels wrongly treated, he has only himself to blame for not telling me," he said...
...eight sons to U.S. and British colleges to study, then gave them jobs in government when they returned home again. Against the protestations of traditional Moslems, Faisal went ahead and abolished slavery, opened schools for girls and introduced television to his kingdom. At the same time, he kept the Koran as the law of the land. Harsh penalties continued to be handed out to those who violated its proscriptions against adultery and the drinking of alcohol. Even today, public executions of murderers are occasionally carried out in the main public squares of Saudi Arabian cities...