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Content View Hits : 846847| Virtual Museum on Islamic Art Launched |
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| Monday, 23 April 2007 02:03 | |||
 What's being billed as the first virtual museum of Islamic art "opened" officially on Friday providing a window on some of
the traces of Islamic culture that are scattered across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The project, which makes accessible online the marvels of ancient Islamic culture, involves 17 museums in 14 countries. More than 850 artefacts, 385 monuments and archaeological sites, covering 1280 years of history are accessible at the click of a button. From 634 AD when for the first time the Islamic army penetrated the Levante to the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the start of the 20th century. At the invitation of the Museum With No Frontiers, 14 countries from around the Mediterranean and the European Union have agreed to collaborate on producing a virtual museum on the Internet that explores Islamic art and material culture in the Mediterranean region. This collaboration brings together a representative selection of Islamic objects, monuments and historical sites from Portugal, Spain and Italy on the northern shores of the Mediterranean; Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt on the southern shores; and Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Turkey on the eastern coast. Relevant Islamic collections from museums in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom complete the virtual museums collections. All these artefacts, monuments and sites cover the various Islamic dynasties and cultures of the Mediterranean region spanning some 1,280 years from 634 when the Muslim Arab armies first entered the Levant, to the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Although the Islamic world and its artistic traditions stretch from Kashghar in China to Dakar in Senegal, this project is focusing on the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin to tell the story of Islamic art. The site is available in eight languages. "It can be used by tourists who want to decide on the route of their journeys based on the things that they want to see, or history buffs and even young people who have to do research in class on ancient times" explained Mohammed Abbas Selim, project spokesman in Cairo. The museum is sponsored by the European Union, the Euromed Heritage programme, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Ministerio De Asuntos Exteriores De Cooperación, and Fondation ONA. The project cost 3.2 million euros and is part of the wider "Museum Without Borders", a non profit organisation founded in 1994 in Vienna by Eva Schubert, who has dedicated her career to the development of multicultural projects at an international level.
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