So That You Might Know Each Other - The World of Islam from North Africa to China and Beyond - Magazine

70 artefacts that include textiles, musical instruments, jewellery, rudimentary weapons, books and manuscripts from the Vatican Ethnological Museum's Islamic Collection

The Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

The exhibition So that you might know each other commemorates an unprecedented collaboration between the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization and the Vatican Ethnological Museum and displays 70 artefacts that include textiles, musical instruments, jewellery, rudimentary weapons, books and manuscripts.

For the first time ever in its 300-year history the Vatican has collaborated with a partner in the Muslim world for an exhibition. The objects being showcased in the exhibition have been carefully selected by a curatorial team made up of experts from Sharjah and the Vatican. The final selection, bringing together a broad spectrum of artefacts from imperial enamels to village instruments, aims at highlighting the fascinating cultural diversity of Muslim communities around the world, the achievements, of its people, their daily lives, their customs and their spirituality. In date, the objects range from the 17th to the early 20th century, therefore symbolizing traditional ways of life that pre-date the onset of modernity and globalization.

This remarkable exhibition at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization (SMIC) is closing today. Islamic Arts Magazine has visited the exhibition and we are bringing you the photo tour.

Highlights from the Exhibition

Exhibition So that you might know each other / Installation view / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Table with geometrical and arabesque decoration, Morocco, late 19th century - early 20th century / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Camel saddle, late 19th century / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Exhibition So that you might know each other / Installation view / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Handwoven basketry mat, Palestine or Syria, early 20th century. Plant fibers, natural pigments / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Embroidered Trousers with Ancklebands, Nigeria, Housa people, late 19th - early 20th century, indigo-dyed cotton, wool, embroidered with silk / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine