Uncovering Arabic Book covers through Collaboration. Exhibition | Archival Alliance

The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the emergence of new ideas and projects at the McGill Islamic Studies Library (ISL). One such example is our collaboration with the Arabic Design Archive (ADA) which started in the middle of the pandemic. Originally, the ISL committed to feed the digital archives with scans of book cover from its collections. As time passed, both parties decided to create a joint exhibition titled Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers that was displayed in the Islamic Studies Library from September 15th to December 15th, 2022.

“The Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers exhibition seeks to highlight and broaden the concept of the histories of graphic design beyond Western contributions to present the wealth of design work produced in the Arab World [….], the exhibit [walked] visitors through the history of Arabic books covers design between 1970 and 2000.”

In early 2020, Moe Elhossieny, Egyptian designer, practitioner historian and researcher, started an archiving project that developed later into the digital Arabic Design Archive. ADA is a non-profit initiative aiming to facilitate knowledge production about Arabic design and its historical context by collecting, digitizing, and making available relevant materials; and to create a digital archive serving both for inspirational and scholarly purposes.

To achieve his goal, Elhossieny began to collect Arabic book covers designs from various collections crowdsourcing stored them in their repository, and posted the most interesting ones on the ADA Instagram account. This is where our former colleague, Mrs. Samah Kasha, learned about the project and contacted Moe Elhossieny to offer our contribution by sending a monthly batch of Arabic book covers’ scans from the Islamic studies Library collection. The collaboration started officially in the Winter of 2021.

Between January 2021 and January 2023, the ISL sent the digital copies of 250 book covers to the ADA archive across a wide range of subjects. Book covers were selected based on their date of publication (to comply with copyright requirements) as well as design and style including typography, graphic design, illustration, and calligraphy. The ADA included these images to their repository and posted some of them (when copyright allowed) on their Instagram account: @thearabicdesignarchive. Our materials have been tagged “Collection of @mcgillislamiclibrary.”

Examples of book covers:

While the Arabic Design Archives was growing and diversifying, the ISL relationship with them tightened, and we suggested expanding the collaboration: a jointly curated exhibition seemed like a good way to do so.

Given the restrictions imposed on everyone by the COVID pandemic, The Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers exhibition was developed in a hybrid format including both a physical display and a digital component. The virtual part of the exhibition consisted in a touch table exhibit that offered visitors a unique interactive digital experience. The physical display featured books from the ISL collection, and the digital display gave access to book covers from the ADA archive.

Physical display in the ISL – Photos: Lauren Goldman
Physical display in the ISL – Photos: Lauren Goldman
Physical display in the ISL – Photos: Lauren Goldman

To incorporate the digital aspect of the exhibition, we asked our colleague Gregory Houston, ROAAr (Rare & Special Collections, Osler, Art, and Archives) Digitization Administrator for help. His expertise in developing touch table experience combined with Moe Elhossieny’s expertise in design resulted in a colorful and engaging touch table exhibit, showcasing books covers, animated clips, documentary videos, illustrated pages presenting the narrative of the exhibition, historical photographs, etc.

Touch Table experience – Video capture: Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian – Featuring: Samira Meshkin (Senior Library Clerk at the Islamic Studies Library)
Animated book cover clip created by Moe Elhosseini

The topics covered and the materials included in the The Archival Alliance: Discovering Arabic Book Covers exhibition were identified and selected over the course of several meetings. If more than 500 ISL book covers were scanned and sent to the ADA during our two years-long collaboration, only 20 of them were chosen for the physical display. While selecting the book covers, we realized that three artists had played an important role in designing book covers in the 20th century: Hilmi El-Tuni, Mohieddine Ellabbad and Bahgat Osman. With materials gathered for his personal research and the Arabic Design Archives, Moe Elhossieny was able to create documentary-style videos highlighting the work of the three featured artists (video1, 2 and 3). These videos were available for watching on the touch table.

Bahgat Osman
Hilmi El-Tuni
Mohieddine Ellabbad
video 1. Mohieddine Ellabbad- Video credit: Moe Elhossieny

video 2. Bahgat Osman- Video credit: Moe Elhossieny

video 3. Hilmi Al Tuni Evoking Popular Arab Culture by Yasmine Taan | Copy + Paste Syndrome | Nuqat 2015, YouTube, uploaded by: Nuqat, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW72ub0HIvY

Materials on both the touch table and in the display cabinet were assigned to three main subject areas : Religion, Literature, and History. Book cover design can teach us a lot by reflecting design trends and techniques of the period when they were published. To offer a more meaningful experience to visitors, the Islamic Studies Library made additional books accessible for discovery along side those in the physical display.

The graphic design and visual elements for the promotional materials like postcards (images 1 & 2) and poster (image3) were collaboratively developed.

If the plan was to host a launch or closing event in the presence of Moe Elhossieny, travel restrictions to Canada unfortunately did not allow us to do that.

The exhibition concluded on December 15th, 2023 after attracting numerous visitors from McGill and from the larger Montreal community. We received a lot of positive feedback: some visitors were impressed by the wide range of designs, others found the concept original and unique, others enjoyed the touch table experience and its audio-visual materials.

The exhibition was, curated by Anaïs Salamon, Head of the Islamic Studies Library, Moe Elhosseiny, The Arabic Design Archive, Samah Kasha, former Senior Library Clerk at the Islamic Studies Library, and Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian, Senior Library Clerk at the Islamic Studies Library.

We extend special thanks to Gregory Houston, McGill ROAAr (Rare & Special Collections, Osler, Art, and Archives) Digitization Administrator, without whom the creation of the touch table experience would have not been possible.

We also thank Dr. Charles Fletcher, Head Library Clerk at the Islamic Studies Library, and Lauren Goldman, Communications and Events Administrator in the Office of the Dean of Libraries, for their invaluable support, and many contributions to this project.

Image 2: Post card-Back side
Image 1: Post card-front side
Image 3: Exhibition poster

Physical display, touch table and additional book covers in ISL- Photo: Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian

This blog post is written by Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian and proofread by Anaïs Salamon.

Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research (AMAR) / مؤسّسة التّوثيق والبحث في الموسيقى العربيّة

Launched in 2009, the Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research (AMAR) is a private Lebanese organization working towards the preservation of recorded and printed Arab musical tradition of the Nahda (approx. 1903-1935). AMAR also aims at supporting on-going scholarly research in musicology, and promoting traditional Arab music. To do so, AMAR actively collects, catalogues, and digitizes printed scores and audio records, organizes public lectures, scientific conferences, and musical concerts, and ensures its unique collection is accessible to worldwide researchers and the general public.

The Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research is supported by numerous artists and music professionals. International renowned musicologists such as Jean Lambert, Nidaa Abou Mrad, Virginia Danielson, or Michael Frishkopf are members of the Consulting & Planning Board. And the foundation is managed by a Leading Team including numerous music specialists and professionals.

Today, AMAR has one of the largest known record collections of Egyptian/Syro-Lebanese Arab music from 1903 through to the 1930s. AMAR also has some partial collections of Lebanese studio recordings that date back to the 1950s.

About‘ page

The geographical focus of the foundation’s work spans from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the Arab Gulf to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and includes minority groups existing in these countries such as the Syriac, Kurdish, and Coptic communities as well as Sufi orders. If initially, AMAR’s dissemination work relied primarily on CDs and booklets, with the rise of the Internet, efforts were redirected towards the creation of “a website that will deliver Arab music at the highest quality that available technology allows.”

On the website, visitors will find a dynamic timeline highlighting important contributors to the development and circulation of traditional Arab music. Despite some limitations outline in the introductory paragraph, the timeline remains an interesting source of information.

Complementing the timeline, the Artists & Music section offers a different way to navigate the various singers, and composers included in the database:

Moreover, in the past ten years, AMAR produced over 200 Podcast episodes (in Arabic) focusing on individual artists, musical techniques and/or instruments. And the list of events available on a dedicated page gives a idea of the variety of manifestations AMAR participated in and organized: exhibitions, concerts, panels, film screenings, etc. Unfortunately, the most recent ones go back to 2021: one can only hope they will resume activities in this area soon. The Documents page gives access to lengthy and well-documented papers on various people and topics:

Last, the Products page is where one can order materials published by the foundation from, mostly CDs but also a monograph:

It is worthy to note that traditional Arab music enthusiasts will find original music available for listening in a number of the website’ sections (Artists & music, Podcast, and Products). Be advised that the sound quality varies from one recording to another.

For more information, we invite you to consult the Press and Press TV Kits, and/or contact the AMAR Foundation. Their website is available in Arabic and English.

Mizna مزنه

Founded over in 1999 by Kathryn Haddad and Saleh Abudayyeh, Mizna is an Arab-American not-for-profit organization promoting the artistic and cultural production of contemporary South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists. Mizna is based in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-Saint Paul), Minnesota, USA.

The online platform aims at “reflect[ing] the depth and multiplicity of [the] community and has been committed to being a space for Arab, Muslim, and other artists from the region to reclaim [their] narratives and engage audiences in meaningful and artistically excellent art.”

Through Mizna, audiences have the opportunity to engage in the work of Arab and Muslim artists on its [sic] own terms. And our community has a critical opportunity to see some facet of their own experience reflected on the page or the screen.

https://mizna.org/about/

Since the beginning, the organization has been publishing a biannual literary journal entitled Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America. As of 2021, 38 issues had come out, some of which are still available for purchase on the website. Over the years, more than 400 writers have contributed to Mizna among whom Suheir Hammad, Mahmoud Darwish, Laila Lalami, etc.

In 2003, Mizna engaged in producing the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival (TCAFF) which has become “the largest and longest running Arab film fest in the Midwest”. TCAFF has been showcasing contemporary cinema from the Arab World and from the Arab diaspora, produced by emerging, independent, and established filmmakers, with the objective to present the Arab and Arab American communities in all their complexity far from the stereotyped ways in which they are often depicted in mainstream Western media.

Today, Mizna is run by a Board of Directors and a team of eighteen staff members: an artistic director numerous program curators, event and communication coordinators, editors, and teachers.

The organization was named a Regional Cultural Treasure in 2021 by the Ford Foundation and McKnight Foundation, and received several cultural awards such as multiple Knight Arts Challenge Awards, and the Ordway’s Sally Award for Social Impact. Mizna is funded and supported by:

To be informed of their activities, it is possible to sign up for the newsletter, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and YouTube.

Two valuable collections of Islamic materials @Library of Congress

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The Library of Congress houses, preserves, collects and makes accessible numerous valuable and historical materials from across the globe in different languages, forms and subjects, this includes  a noteworthy collection of rare Persian language materials. This collection is part of the “African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division” and includes various rare materials of early print books, lithographic books and manuscripts.

Qurʼān. [1739 or 1740, 1739] Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017406495/>.

Sūrat al-Qāf. [18th Century] Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017498316/>.

According to the Library of Congress most materials in this collection was acquired in 1930s through a well-known dealer in fine Islamic and Near Eastern arts, Kirkor Minassian. This acquisition includes rare manuscripts and books in Arabic, Persian, Armenian and Turkish language, however the rare Persian language collection grew beyond Minassain acquisitions as the library continued to acquire more materials from other sources as well as to receive rare collections in a form of donation from generous people.

Ṣāfī, Aḥmad Rashīd, Scribe, Ibrāhīm AdʹHam Gharbaldah Balawī, and Charles C McVicker. Qurʼān
. [18–?] Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2010471600/>

This collection consists of materials in different subject and disciplines from the entire Middle East. However, literary works and historical lithographs makes up for much of the collection.

“A number of these items are exquisitely illuminated anthologies of poetry by classic and lesser known poets, written in fine calligraphic styles, and illustrated with miniatures. Many also have beautiful bindings. A number of the illuminated books are multilingual works, which include Arabic and Turkish passages in addition to Persian, focusing on scientific, religious – philosophical and literary topics, and others are holy books important to all confessional traditions within the Islamic world.”

In 2014 in an exhibition, called “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” that was held by The Library’s Near East Section, 40 items of rare Persian collection were shown to the public, this exhibition led to a digitization project in 2015. As a result of this ongoing project up until now 169 lithographs of the Collection are digitized and made available.

This beautifully organized collection can be accessed here. Each record provides access to a digitized format of the item as well as a description about the item such as a physical account, bibliographic information and when available summary of the content.

In addition to the abovementioned collection, Library of Congress also provided to a large collection of Arabic script calligraphy sheets from 9th to 19th century. 373 calligraphy sheets can be browsed online which mainly consist of fragments of Quran written on paper or parchment.

Access the collection here.

This beautiful collection also provides detail description for each item as well as script of the presented sheet, calligraphic style, date and physical account of the item. This collection also includes a section of Special Presentations:
Calligraphers of the Persian Tradition
Ottoman Calligraphers and Their Works
Qur’anic Fragments
Noteworthy Items

Amaliah

Launched in 2016 by Nafisa Bakkar, a 27th years-old entrepreneur based in London, U.K., Amaliah is an online media-platform aiming to serve as an amplifier for Muslim women’s voices. Rich of contributions from over 300 women living all around the World, Amaliah allows for different feminine experiences within Muslim communities to be made pubic and widely accessible. Amaliah is committed to inclusion trying to take a broad-range of perspectives into consideration when addressing issues.

Over the years, Amaliah and its founder received a lot of attention from main-stream media: they were featured in Forbes, The Telegraph, CNN, and The Guardian -to name only a few- increasing the platform’s visibility and leading to a digital footprint of over 3.2 million every month.

The platform categorizes its multimedia content (text, video & audio) in seven main categories:

  • Identity relays stories of personal journeys to becoming a woman
  • Relationships is interested in romantic relationships, family relationships, and the relationship individuals have with themselves
  • Soul focuses on the spiritual side of things (tips, advice, and experiences helping to nourish and boost one’s faith or comfort one’s heart
  • Fashion shares fashion and inspiration from bloggers
  • Beauty & Makeup brings beauty and make-up advice
  • Lifestyle aims at inspiring, guiding and motivating with content inspired by one’s personal interests and daily activities
  • World focuses on current affairs, news stories across the globe and trending topics.

The Amaliah Podcast won the 2019 ‘Grassroots Production of the Year Award’ from the Audio Production Award, and was nominated for the 2020 British Podcast Awards in the ‘Best Sex & Relationships Podcast’ category. The Podcast discusses Muslim life, culture and politics in the U.K.

If some of you have ideas that they would like to share, Amaliah welcomes new contributions and contributors. So don’t hesitate to contact them at contribute@amaliah.com!

Last, in March 2020, Amaliah introduced a membership option giving access to a variety of exclusive events and content. You can check out the Support page to learn more!

Persian Culture Workshops at the Redpath Museum in May & June 2019

Located on the McGill campus, the Redpath Museum is an academic unit of the University. “Its mandate is to foster understanding and appreciation of the diversity of our biological, geological, and cultural heritage through scientific research, collections-based study, and education.”

As part of its Spring programming, the Redpath Museum will be hosting two series of  Persian Culture Workshops in English designed respectively for children ages 7-9 and ages 10-12. The workshops, offered by Dr. Farshid Sadatsharifi, visiting scholar at the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, and Mrs. Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian, Senior Library Clerk at the Islamic Studies Library of McGill University will explore “the historical events, the colorful medieval paintings and the beautiful collection of poems kept within the pages of the Persian Epic of Kings.”

The full programming is as follow:

  • May 5th: The Persian Epic of Kings – Part 1 (ages 7-9)
  • May 12th: The Persian Epic of Kings – Part 2 (ages 7-9)
  • June 1st: The Persian Epic of Kings – Part 1 (ages 10-12)
  • June 15th: The Persian Epic of Kings – Part 2 (ages 10-12)

Please note that as space is limited, registration is required and will close a few days before the workshops.

Facebook users may follow the series there: The Persian Epic of Kings for Children ages 7 to 9 and The Persian Epic of Kings for Children ages 10 to 12.

To go further, the Islamic Studies Library collection includes a significants number of miniatures and manuscripts copies of the book Shahnameh – Epic of Kings. Some of them are accessible online in the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi digital exhibition:

For more information about Persian culture, you may visit the Islamic Studies Library of McGill University.

8th Edition of Montreal Orientalys Festival (August 2-5, 2018)

The programme of the 8th edition of Montreal Orientalys Festival was just announced and is now available on their website:

For the past seven years, Orientalys has aimed at providing a platform to showcase North African, Middle Eastern, and South East Asian cultures and traditions in Quebec. The festival will take place in the Old Port of Montreal on Thursday August 2 from 6 to 11 p.m.,Friday  August 3 from 3 to 11 p.m.,Saturday  August 4 from 12 to 11 p.m.,Sunday  August 5 from 12 to 11 p.m.

The programme includes dancing performances and concerts, as well as a wide variety of interactive activities for children and/or adults (such as cooking and handicraft workshops). Orientalys is free and open to everyone.

For more information see: 

A Piece of Heart and a Piece of Art: Damascus Room

Damascus Room, Syria, Damascus, 1766-67/ AH 1180, Wood (poplar) with gesso relief, copper and tin leaf, glazes and paint, plaster with stone paste inlays, and multicolored stones; installation (approx) 240 x 180 x 144 in.© Museum Associates/LACMA

The story began in the fall and early winter of 2011-12, when Linda Komaroff, Curator and Department Head at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), decided to pursue an acquisition of a period room from eighteenth-century Damascus, Syria. Komaroff is one of the people who makes LACMA a very unique institution. In Unframed post titled Preserving Small Piece of Damascus, Komaroff describes the new acquisition:

The Damascus Room came to signify more than the unique opportunity to acquire a rare work of art that would become a destination for museum visitors but the very embodiment of what LACMA is as an encyclopedic art museum. Although the room was removed from Syria nearly thirty-five years ago, the notion that we would be helping to preserve a small part of the cultural history of one of the world’s oldest, continuously occupied cities, intensified my interest in bringing the room to Los Angeles so that its story can be told and appreciated in this twenty-first-century city.

The room was dissembled in 1978 from one of the courtyard houses located in the al- Bahsa district, which was later demolished in order to accommodate the growth of the city of Damascus. The room was then exported from Syria to Beirut, Lebanon where it remained in storage for over 30 years. It somehow made its way to a London warehouse where it was found by Komaroff. Although the room was maintained in its original state, some restoration was required and an armature was created to make the room self-supporting so that it could be installed in an already-existing space or reinstalled elsewhere. Komaroff describes the Damascus Room thusly:

Damascus Room, Syria, Damascus, 1766-67/ AH 1180. © Museum Associates/LACMA

It has multicolored inlaid stone floors, painted wood walls, elaborate cupboard doors and storage niches, a spectacular arch with plaster voussoirs decorated with colored inlays that served to divide the room into upper and lower sections separated by a single tall step; and an intricately inlaid stone wall fountain with a carved and painted hood. The painted wood surfaces are embellished with a particular type of relief decoration known in Arabic as al-‘ajami (“meaning non-Arab or foreign”) or as pastiglia in the West.

The restoration work was undertaken in collaboration with Saudi Aramco’s King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture and with the support provided by the Friends of Heritage Preservation, LACMA. The reassembling of the Damascus Room was a two-year project completed in December 2015. The room was on display at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia from 2016–2018 and will be returned to Los Angeles to tell its story to a new audience.The reconstruction of the Damascus Room has been one of the Linda Komaroff’s curatorial career:

Being in the room is a joy; it exudes a kind of beauty, warmth and comfort, which is in keeping with its original function as a place for welcoming guests. But that joy is tempered by the sadness of the continuing deterioration of daily life in Syria, the diaspora of its citizens, and the destruction of its historic monuments. For now, the room must play one more role as a preserver of memories of Syria, as so beautifully expressed by the Syrian-American hip-hop artist and poet Omar Offendum, whose performance* was recorded in the room.

* Video attribution: www.lacma.org

New Exhibition: If Walls Could Speak: the History of Morrice Hall

If Morrice Hall’s walls could speak, you would hear the story of faculty and students of the Presbyterian College of Montreal, of wounded soldiers returning from war overseas, and of members of the International Labour Organization seeking a safe space to work during war-time.

Morrice Hall interior during International Labour Organization occupation (1940)

Today home to McGill’s Islamic Studies Library, the Institute of Islamic Studies, and the English department’s Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre, Morrice Hall was built in 1882, as a home for the Presbyterian College. Named in honour of David Morrice, then-Chairman of the College’s Board of Management and generous donator of $80,000, Morrice Hall was an extension to the original College building, itself built in 1873.

Drawing of Morrice Hall – Presbyterian College Journal, vol. 5, no. 3 (1885), p. 86

Presenting a mixture of photos, publications, plans, and maps spanning 135 years, If Walls Could Speak will take you through the major moments in the history of Morrice Hall: from its foundation, to expansion, to the interruptions of war, to the demolition of the original building and the renovations that created the space we know in 2018.

Curated by Islamic Studies Library’ staff -Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian, Jillian Mills, Anaïs Salamon-, this exhibit offers a unique experience making materials discoverable simultaneously in a physical display and on a touch table.

Touch Table Exhibit capture (2018) – credit: Greg Houston


Title: If walls could speak: the History of Morrice Hall
Dates: February 19, 2018-July 15, 2018, during opening hours
Location: Islamic Studies Library, 1st floor of Morrice Hall

Exhibition launch: Treasures from the McGill Ottoman Manuscripts Collection

Join us as we launch our exhibition Treasures from the McGill Ottoman Manuscripts Collection Thursday September 7th from 5 to 7 p.m.

Dr Aslıhan Gürbüzel, professor of Ottoman history at the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, will talk about Ottoman Book Art and the display. The talk will be followed by refreshments served in the Octagon room.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

When :
Thursday September 7th, 5 p.m.
Where :
Islamic Studies Library
, 1st floor
3485, McTavish Street
Montreal, QC HA3 0E1
FB event :
https://www.facebook.com/events/265064857341848