£6,200.00
"Harf Al Kaf: A Poetic Meditation on Love and Injustice"
This beautiful artwork features a poem by Layla al-Akhyaliyya, narrated by the first Abbasid Caliph, Abu Jaafar Al Mansour, which comments on the injustice of society and laments its unconcern on the plight of the poor.
The original artwork, created by artist Ali Omar Ermes in 1991, is currently in the collection of the British Museum in London, UK.
This fine artwork print, produced using the silkscreen printing method, captures the essence of the poem and is signed and numbered by the artist in pencil.
This limited edition print is part of a run of 250 and measures 90cm x 116cm. The print was produced in 2005, allowing fans of Arabic literature and art to bring a piece of this powerful message into their own home.
The poem is also infused with themes of love, as exemplified by the famous line by Layla al-Akhyaliyya, "Love is the key that opens the door to the secrets of the universe."
Layla al-Akhyaliyya was an Arabic poet who lived in the 7th century. She is known for her poetry, which was written in the form of qasidas (long, rhyming poems). Some famous lines from her poetry include:
"O my love, the one I love, the one I love beyond all reason"
"When I see you, I forget the world and all its troubles"
"Your love has captured me and left me in a state of longing"
"I am consumed by the fire of love that burns within me"
"My heart is torn between love and longing, and I cannot find peace"
Layla's poetry is known for its intense emotion and expression of love and longing. It has had a lasting influence on Arabic literature and has been widely admired and studied by scholars and readers around the world.
* Frame not included.
£6,200.00
"The Blue Haa: A Romance of Courage and Chivalry by Antar ibn Shaddād"
This artwork features the famous love story of Antar ibn Shaddād and Ablah, as told through the poetic musings of the great Arab warrior-poet.
The original artwork, created by artist Ali Omar Ermes in 1979, is currently in the possession of a Middle Eastern Royal Family.
This fine artwork print, produced using the silkscreen printing method, captures the essence of Antar's journey and his famous line, "I am the son of the brave and the descendant of the noble."
This limited edition print, signed and numbered by the artist in pencil, is part of a run of 250 and measures 112cm x 90cm. The print was produced in 2005, allowing fans of Arabic literature and art to bring a piece of this timeless love story into their own home.
Antar ibn Shaddād was a pre-Islamic Arab poet and warrior who lived in the 6th century. He is known for his poetry, which celebrated his bravery and martial prowess, as well as his love for his wife, Abla. Some famous lines from his poetry include:
"I am the son of Shaddad, the lion of the battlefield"
"I am the hero of the tribe, the one who strikes fear into the hearts of my enemies"
"I am the conqueror of lands, the vanquisher of foes"
"I am the defender of my people, the protector of the weak"
"I am the lover of Abla, the one whose passion knows no bounds"
Antar's poetry has had a lasting impact on Arabic literature and has been widely admired and studied by scholars and readers around the world.
* Frame not included.
£25.00
The book of the late Ali Omar Ermes: The One Who Saw is not the One Who Heard.. Intellectual and spiritual tourism in the Islamic world.
The book "The One Who Saw is Not the One Who Heard" by the late Libyan artist and writer Ali Omar Ermes (1945-2021) was published in Britain, a book that the late Ali Omar Ermes worked on for a while and died after completing his last drafts and sent for printing.
It consists of articles written more than fifty years ago and published in the Libyan magazine "Cultural Week" between 1975 and 1976, in which he recorded his observations in the Islamic world, where he was sent on a mission to Islamic countries to study Visual Arts in preparation for the “The World of Islam Festival”, where he worked as an adviser to its director Paul Keller. His work led him to a journey that he started in Southeast Asia in Indonesia and Malaysia, where he tried to present an image of the arts of embroidery and the types of silk used in the manufacture of clothing, especially the arts of "Batik", and traveled thousands of miles in Indonesia from Jakarta to Java and from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Kota Baru, the capital of the state of Johor Baru in southern Malaysia in search of the arts of making clothes and the shapes drawn on them.
From Southeast Asia, he traveled to South Asia, where he presented a picture of handicrafts, porcelain inlays, copper, and the silk industry in India, which is considered the preserve of Muslims. During his visit, he visited the great mosques and monuments that still bear witness to the greatness of Muslims there, from the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Red Fort, and the Jama Masjid in Dehli or New Delhi. In Benares, the writer found that it was the Muslims who made the Silk worn by the mosaics due to the craftsmanship of its embroidery, and pointed out that it was the Muslims who were known for the colours of food and his art. In Hyderabad, the Deccan was found to be the city famous for making jewellery and utensils in a way that no place on Earth matches.
His trip included Kashmir and its capital Srinagar, and he recorded what he saw from the graves of Sultans and princes and what Muslim calligraphers had achieved in this area. In Karachi, he noticed the residents ' obsession with embroidery on everything from boaters to mirror lenses. He visited the silk-making factories known as Al-agraq, visited the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, and the Shalimar Gardens.
His travels led him to Taiz, Sana'a and its beautiful houses, IBB, Jund, and Wadi Imran. In Baghdad, he visited al-Mustansiriya, Al-sharabiya, and libraries, and in Samarra, which he visited in a hurry, he visited the al-Mutawakkil mosque and the Malawian minaret. In Baghdad, he met the well-known calligrapher Walid al-Azmi. In Damascus, where he said, "when Khalid ibn al-Walid rushed to Damascus, he took with him all the following reasons of history, which from Damascus began to make its way with the violence of its fate," and in Damascus, he visited the Umayyad Mosque, its wide nave, its majestic minarets, its roofs decorated with gold and a hybrid dome like a tud, history entered Damascus. His trip included Istanbul, the mother of cities and the junction of the seas and continents, visiting its sights and meeting the well-known Turkish calligrapher Hamid al-AMDI, who was in his eighties at that time. And in Cairo, he visited the city of a thousand minarets. In Zanzibar, he described the island of carnation and visited the well-known East African boating wineries.
The late added to these original articles a set of comments through which he presented his vision of the world fifty years later, put his intellectual juice in it, and described what the situation of Muslims has become far and wide on the Earth. He denounced injustice and tyranny and combined all this with his extensive knowledge of Arabic literature and the Islamic poetic heritage in such a way that he turned his book into intellectual tourism as it is tourism in the land, people, and greatness of Muslims that it was.
An important book full of surprises, jokes, poems and comments from an artist who mastered the art of colour painting and turned the Arab into a mirror of the power of Arab and Islamic Civilisation, his paintings are full of poems, aphorisms and judgment.
كتاب الراحل علي عمر إرميص: ليس من رأى كمن سمع.. سياحة فكرية وروحية في العالم الإسلامي
صدر في بريطانيا كتاب "ليس من رأى كمن سمع" للفنان والكاتب الليبي الراحل علي عمر إرميص (1945- 2021) وهو كتاب عمل على إعداده الراحل منذ وقت وتوفي بعدما أكمل مسوداته الأخيرة ودفعه للطباعة ووصلت نسخه يوم تشييع جنازته في لندن حيث ووري الثرى في مقبرة "دار السلام".
وهو عبارة عن مقالات كتبها قبل أكثر من خمسين عاما ونشرها في مجلة "الأسبوع الثقافي" الليبية في الفترة ما بين 1975- 1976، وسجل فيها مشاهداته في العالم الإسلامي، حيث أرسل في بعثة إلى الدول الإسلامية لدراسة الفنون المرئية تحضيرا لمهرجان العالم الإسلامي الذي عمل فيه كمستشار لمديره بول كيلر. وقاده عمله إلى رحلة بدأها من جنوب شرق آسيا في اندونيسيا وماليزيا حيث حاول تقديم صورة عن فنون التطريز وأنواع الحرير المستخدمة في صناعة الملابس وبخاصة فنون "الباتيك"، وسافر ألاف الأميال في أندونيسيا من جاكرتا إلى جاوة ومن كوالمبور في ماليزيا إلى كوتا بارو عاصمة ولاية جوهور بارو في الجنوب الماليزي بحثا عن فنون صناعة الملابس والأشكال المرسومة عليها.
ومن جنوب شرق آسيا، سافر إلى جنوب آسيا، حيث قدم صورة عن الحرف اليدوية وتطعيم الخزف والنحاس وصناعة الحرير في الهند التي تعتبر حكرا على المسلمين. وزار خلال زيارته المساجد الكبرى والمعالم التي لا تزال شاهدة على عظمة المسلمين هناك، من تاج محل في أغرا والقلعة الحمراء والمسجد الجامع في دهلي أو نيو دلهي. وفي بنارس وجد الكاتب أن المسلمين هم من يصنعون الحرير الذي يرتديه الموسرون نظرا لبراعة تطريزه، وأشار إلى أن المسلمين هم المعروفون بألوان الطعام وفنونه. وفي حيدر اباد الدكن وجد أنها المدينة الشهيرة بصناعة الحلي والأواني بشكل لا يباريها مكان على وجه الأرض.
وشملت رحلته كشمير وعاصمتها سرينغار، وسجل ما رآه من قبور السلاطين والأولياء وما بلغه الخطاطون المسلمون من شأو في هذا المجال. وفي كراتشي لاحظ هوس السكان بالتطريز على كل شيء من الطواقي إلى عدسات المرايا. وزار معامل صناعة الحرير المعروفة بالأجرق، وزار مسجد باد شاهي في لاهور وحدائق شاليمار.
وقادته أسفاره إلى تعز وصنعاء وبيوتها الجميلة وإب والجند ووادي عمران. وفي بغداد زار المستنصرية والشرابية والمكتبات، وفي سامراء التي زارها على عجل فقد زار مسجد المتوكل والمئذنة الملوية. والتقى في بغداد الخطاط المعروف وليد الأعظمي. وفي دمشق التي قال فيها "عندما أسرع خالد بن الوليد إلى دمشق اصطحب معه كل أسباب التاريخ التالية التي من دمشق ابتدأت تشق بعنفوان مصيرها" وفي دمشق زار الجامع الأموي وصحنه الواسع ومآذنه الشامخات وسقوفه المزخرفة بالذهب وقبة مهجنة كالطود، دخل التاريخ إلى دمشق". وشملت رحلته اسطنبول، أم المدائن وملتقى البحار والقارات، وزار معالمها والتقى الخطاط التركي المعروف حامد الآمدي الذي كان في الثمانينات من عمره في ذلك الوقت. وفي القاهرة زار مدينة الألف مئذنة. وفي زنجبار وصف جزيرة القرنفل وزار معامل الطواقي المرفية المعروفة في شرق أفريقيا.
وأضاف الراحل لهذه المقالات الأصلية مجموعة من التعليقات قدم من خلالها رؤيته للعالم بعد خمسين عاما، ووضع عصارته الفكرية فيها، ووصف ما آل إليه حال المسلمين في مشارق الارض ومغاربها. وشجب الظلم والطغيان، ومزج كل هذا بمعرفته الواسعة في الأدب العربي والتراث الشعري الإسلامي بشكل حول كتابه إلى سياحة فكرية كما هو سياحة في الأرض والبشر وعظمة المسلمين التي كانت.
كتاب مهم حافل بالمفاجآت والنكات والأشعار والتعليقات من فنان أتقن فن رسم اللون وحول العربي إلى مرآة لقوة الحضارة العربية والإسلامية، فلوحاته تحفل بالأشعار والأقوال المأثورة والحكم.