Jordan Times
Friday, December 2, 2005
Kingdom's artefacts to be
displayed on online virtual museum
By Jafar Irshaidat
AMMAN — The Kingdom has been chosen to represent
Umayyad period Islamic art in “Discover Islamic Art,” an online virtual museum.
The website, to be launched on Dec. 9, will feature a virtual exhibition of
Islamic art in the Mediterranean, where visitors will be able to examine
objects, monuments and archaeological sites from 14 different countries and
relate them to each other. The items on display will include copies of the Holy
Koran, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, carpets and textiles.
The project is the conception of Museum With No Frontiers (MWNF), a non-profit
organisation founded in Vienna, which focuses on the presentation of art,
culture and history worldwide.
Besides Jordan, the participating countries include Algeria, Egypt, Germany,
Italy, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and
the UK.
“This website is the most ambitious and exciting project on behalf of MWNF,”
project head and Friends of Archaeology network President Mohammad Najjar said
during a preview of the website held at Al Hussein Cultural Centre on Wednesday
evening.
The website will hold more than 850 artefacts from 45 different museums based in
14 different countries, in addition to 386 historical monuments from 11
countries. The art displayed covers 1,280 years of Islamic art history, between
the 7th and the 21st century, according to Najjar.
Department of Antiquities Director General Fawwaz Khraysheh said there were two
main objectives for launching this website: “The first is to expose the many
treasures of our area and the second is to allow government institutions and
NGOs to work together for cultural prosperity.”
Jordan will be representing the Umayyad period in Mediterranean countries,
focusing on five primary literary issues which dominated the period:
Administrative reforms, Umayyad official patronage, formation of Islamic art,
Christian subjects under Umayyad rule and Umayyad court ceremonials and
pastimes.
“The website will contain detailed literary information connected to each of the
artefacts and archaeological sites displayed,” according to Aida Naghawi,
director of the Jordan Archaeological Museum.
The three-year endeavour is funded by the EU under the Euro-Med Heritage
programme, according to project leaders. Since the start of the project in 2004,
a team of 120 experts from the participating countries coordinated with MWNF in
the selection of the artefacts to be displayed. The selection followed precise
criteria, which focused on the relationship between the items.
Two joint meetings of all partners were held thus far, in Berlin in September
2004 and in Madrid in December 2004, in addition to 14 meetings of local project
teams from all participating countries, which allowed Southern Mediterranean
museums to collaborate closely for the first time and to define together the
contents of the virtual museum.
After the selection process was complete, curators in charge from each country
produced detailed descriptions of each item according to a universalised format.
These descriptions are available in English, French and Arabic in addition to
the local language of each country and are accessible through the database of
the virtual museum.
The visual material compiled by the local project teams includes images of all
items as well as plans for most of the monuments.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Munir Nassar said he was “delighted that my
first function as minister is to participate in the launch of this project...
This project combines art, science, education and, most importantly tourism, and
promotes multilateral ties between different cultures.”
The website can be accessed at http://www.discoverislamicart.org. While the
initial displays will be launched on Dec. 9, the rest of the portal will be
completed by 2007. The travel section, which allows users to find travel
information on exhibited countries, will be ready by mid-2006, while thematic
exhibitions will begin in spring 2007.