Tales From the Thousand and One Nights. Islamic art from the Collections of the Moravian Gallery

250 artefacts from the Islamic world on display at the exhibition 'Tales From the Thousand and One Nights'

The exhibition ‘Tales From the Thousand and One Nights’, Islamic art from the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, exhibits around 250 artefacts from the Islamic world. Visitors can see rare hand-woven textiles, collections of jewellery, womenâ€™s household shoes, the examples from the collection of weapons and the objects we are familiar with from fairy-tales.

The ‘Oriental room’ is a special treat showing a calligrapherâ€™s utensils, mosque lamps and sets of tiles of varied colours and shapes that are used as mosque decorations. The most valuable exhibits are three prayer rugs from the 17th century.

Sabina DvoÅ™Ã¡kovÃ¡, the author of the exhibition, explains that “the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno hold almost 400 artefacts connected to the Islamic Orient, only two exhibits on display are on loan â€“ an old encyclopaedia and one photograph from the collection of the Ethnographic Institute of the Moravian Museum in Brno. The ensemble of almost 240 exhibits reveals the skills of the Islamic world from Morocco via the Balkans and the Middle East to Iran.”

The items displayed in the exhibition are grouped by the material used â€” metalwork, ceramics, textiles, lacquerwork and woodwork. We can also find thematic divisions such as Orientalism, weapons and armour, jewellery.

The artefacts also provide an outstanding example of most of the principal manufacturing techniques applied in the Islamic Orient: hammered and cast metal objects decorated by chasing, inlays, niello, perforation, enamel or punching, old brocade cloths and various embroidery, Oriental lacquerwork or woodcarving and wood with tortoise inlays.