In a way, it is a transaction between two terminals. Arriving at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the planeloads of white-clad pilgrims, preparing for the visit to Mecca, follow a distinct route that is largely closed to non-Muslims.

In a parallel trajectory, visitors to the airport’s Western Hajj Terminal enter an entirely different world of the Aga Khan award-winning space — of tent-like canopies that lead to a state-of-the-art museum. The ground of Jeddah, deemed holy, allows both these spaces to reflect on the Islamic faith and the extraordinary artefacts it has produced over the centuries.

The second Islamic Arts Biennale, titled And All That Is In Between, is a biennale like no other. In manuscripts, architectural elements, religious symbols like the kiswah which covers the holy Kaaba, arms and armour, and objects of luxury and beauty, an entire world seems to unfold. The exhibition derives its distinction not only from its elegant staging, but also in its unabashedly religious assertion. Historians and scholars note that as compared to western art, the Islamic arts have not received the same degree of critical or theoretical analysis. Perhaps, this series of events, led by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, can initiate a new bout of scholarship.

The ‘kiswah’ which covers the holy Kaaba, on display at the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
| Photo Credit:
Marco Cappelletti, courtesy Diriyah Biennale Foundation

At a time when the Arab world is under pressure to resolve its regional crisis and unitedly resist the U.S.’ intentions for Gaza, the focus on Saudi Arabia is intense. Against a background of human rights concerns and investigations led by western agencies, the current geopolitical crisis casts the kingdom in a new role, as the centre of gravity in the Arab world. As a cosmopolitan enterprise that posits medieval arts with contemporary installations, the biennale marks a clearly articulated ambition within the region. In the last two decades, the Arab world has transformed its profile as a centre for education and the arts.

World’s oldest diamond

Briolette of India diamond
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy Symbolic & Chase, London

With Julian Raby, the affable former director of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian, as lead curator, the biennale inevitably throws up some important questions. Perhaps the principal one is about how Islamic art can be separated from its producers, artisans and makers, who often belong to other faiths and cultures, bringing their own motifs, weaves and colour palettes to use. Nonetheless, the exhibition marks a breathtaking view of artefacts loaned from over 30 institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Louvre, presented in state-of-the-art vitrines and lighting that would be the envy of any world museum.

‘Melon Mahallah’ by the Berlin-based Slavs and Tatars.
| Photo Credit:
Marco Cappelletti, courtesy Diriyah Biennale Foundation

The exhibition itself, with open and closed spaces, engages the mind and the eye with its dazzling display. Amin Jaffer, one of the biennale’s artistic directors and director also of the Al Thani Collection, creates one of the highlights in a section titled ‘Al Mukhtani’, that features precious objects from Qatar’s ruling family. A Mughal ruby-encrusted water sprinkler, engraved spinels and huge emeralds, a plate depicting life on the Nile from the 8th century, the early decades of the Muslim calendar, and gold coins from Byzantium are some of the precious objects on view. The fabulous Briolette of India diamond that weighs 90 carats (believed to have been acquired by Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 12th century, making it the oldest diamond in the world), royal robes and Mughal paintings by masters of Jahangir’s atelier all enrich this viewing.

Mughal ruby-encrusted water sprinkler from The Al Thani Collection.

An unusual section named ‘Al Madar’ or the Orbit takes a sweeping view of the science of heavenly constellations, and analyses the genius of mathematics and its uses in astronomy. Curated by Abdul Rahman Azzam, it introduces the astrolabe (al-asturb in Arabic) that helped calculate the movement of stars and navigate ship voyages.

One of the finest, most integrated aspects of the exhibition is that ‘Al Madar’ is heavily textual, and draws from the approximately 3,500 Arabic manuscripts in the collection of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, among other sources. The handwritten books on view demonstrate how the zero, invented in India by Aryabhatta, travelled to the Arab world, finally to be employed by Fibonacci, the most talented mathematician of his time. 

Kaaba as a miniature

At the heart of the exhibition are the centres of Mecca and Medina, to which a pavilion each has been dedicated, and also the material presence of the Quran. The House of God as a symbol and presence has manifold representations in the show. There is on view the key to the Kaaba — from the time of the Prophet, this has been given to the Bani Shaiba family, who have historically served as gatekeepers to the holy site.

Two interesting contemporary insertions making use of Islamic symbols include Asif Khan’s Glass Quran, a highly delicate sculpture composed of 604 inscribed glass pieces placed one upon the other, rendering the holy book iconic. The various copies of the Quran on view represent an extraordinary variety of calligraphic styles and texts, and reaffirm how the holy book has time and again served as an inspiration for art.

‘Magnetism’ by Ahmed Mater

There is also the evocative work Magnetism by Ahmed Mater, which uses the simplicity of the Kaaba as a miniature black cube. As it rotates slowly, its magnetic field sets into vibration thousands of small black iron particles, placed in circles, to suggest the movement of pilgrims during the Hajj.

The copies of the Quran on view represent an extraordinary variety of calligraphic styles and texts, and reaffirm how the holy book has time and again served as an inspiration for art. The largest Quran, believed to have been a gift from the Nawab of Rampur in the 1850s, stands in contrast to the ones produced in variations of the principle five calligraphic styles in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. The Sufi painterly trope of bringing cross-generational holy men in conversation is wonderfully illustrated in works like Prince Murad Baksh with Holy Men and Attendants, painted by Govardhan, from the Al Thani collection.

A careful calculus of the exhibits reveals a fine confluence of aesthetics and knowledge. Different figures from the Islamic world come to light, such as the influential 10th-century Persian astronomer, Abd al-Rahman. Other displays of interest include signs of the Arabic constellations, or the globe made by Mohd. Asturlabi Humayun Lahuri in Mughal India in 1639, which dispel the western hegemony over alchemy, science and mathematics.

Garments and other artefacts from the Al Madar component of the biennale.
| Photo Credit:
Marco Cappelletti, courtesy Diriyah Biennale Foundation

Regional artists and beyond

Beyond the hoary treasure trove of Islamic manuscripts, arms and armour, votive and luxury objects on view, the biennale has a contemporary section curated by leading artist Mohannad Shono that draws on artists of the region and beyond.

From the subcontinent, Mohd. Imran Qureshi creates a space for rest with hundreds of Pakistani woven mats, called Zubaida’s Trail, after the Abbasid queen who built a rest-house for pilgrims travelling between Kufa and Mecca, more than a thousand years ago. Works by Indian artists can be found in the ‘Al Midhallah’ or the Canopy, that invokes the Islamic garden as a tented roof-like structure.

Another important artefact, from the ‘Al Bidayah’ (The Beginning) section, is a madraj or staircase with Baroque motifs, sent by the Nawab of Arcot Azam Jah Bahadur from Chepauk in Chennai to Mecca in the early 19th century.

A staircase from Chennai, presented to Mecca by the Nawab of Arcot in the early 19th century.

This biennale owes its significance not only to the wonder and antiquity of the objects on display or the sophistication of the installations. Even as it affirms a new category of the religious within the biennale circuit, it offers a novel paradigm for the reading and exhibiting of art, and speaks of newer power equations within the art world.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 is on till May 25.

The art critic and curator is based in New Delhi.