THERE are many connections between Malaysia and the most folkloric figure in Islamic history, His Highness the Aga Khan. The current holder of this position has been here on many occasions, not the least of which was an exhibition with the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia almost 10 years ago.
This year, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) is ploughing ahead with restoring Penang's northern coastline.
It's not just Malaysia that is seeing the AKTC benefit. Canada must be grateful that His Highness's astonishing collection of Islamic art has found a home there. Using trade as the foundation for many of its exhibitions, the latest provides a new way of looking at a well-worn path.
Hidden Stories: Books along the Silk Roads explores different routes. It's not just about books. The range of objects is as diverse as the networks through Asia. From a 1,000-year-old prayer sheet from northwestern China, to a 5m-long Iranian scroll of the Quran, there is inevitably plenty of Islamic material.
The story is about the creators of these diverse objects, as well as the traders.
The AKTC, being a promoter of modern crafts and architecture, might also be behind the exhibition's insights into the lives of long-gone artisans of different faiths.
Makers of books are given extra attention.
VISUAL VOCABULARY
Some of the objects in the Aga Khan Museum collection are rarely seen and truly sumptuous. Among them is a stunning robe in the material that the Silk Road was all about — silk.
For a complete garment to have survived from 700 years ago is exceptional enough, and this one has the bonus of being representative of Central Asia at a time when that region housed some of the greatest civilisations the world has ever known.
This is one of the fabled "cloths of gold" that excited all those who heard about them. The giving of ceremonial garments had been part of Islamic culture since soon after the growth of its empire removed some of the ascetic attitudes of its founders.
Central Asia under the Mongols became the quintessence of textile gift-giving. Many of the Muslim weavers were later taken to China, where their skills became part of a quite different, but equally important visual vocabulary at the imperial court.
This robe brings together many different elements, including some romantic-looking birds and a cross motif taken directly from Kashan lustre tilework.
Without the interlocking octagonal tiles, they look more Christian than usual. As the conquering Mongols were both Muslim and sometimes Christian, is it possible that this garment is more than a tribute to the region's tilework?
SHEDDING LIGHT
Other wonders to behold are, as the title would suggest, books. For Muslims, of course, the Quran is the book. There are many examples from a community that is seldom discussed, but is probably not from the currently well-publicised Uighurs.
Large numbers of Han Chinese also embraced Islam centuries ago, often binding the Quran in up to 30 separate books rather than the more typical single volume. The calligraphy is equally distinctive to China. Known as sini script, it is a more fluid style derived from the classic Arabic thuluth. It works perfectly with a Chinese brush rather than the traditional reed pen of the Islamic world.
As with every part of this exhibition, each of these works sheds light on a variety of times and places in history. Assembled together, they tell truly animated stories about the intercultural exchange of technology, art and ideas, the ingenuity of human beings and a longstanding love affair with books that continues today.
At the same time, the future has not been forgotten. There is everything from MicroCT images, for some extraordinary 3D effects, and the new normal of a digital exhibition. This digital experience is different from most in that it offers interactive mapping of land and sea routes that have for centuries connected the world.
While this exhibition ends next February, there was another Silk Road project from the AKTC that I got to see in London earlier in the year.
More accessible than Toronto, partly because it was in the open air near King's Cross station, it was unusual for any photo exhibition. It was only made possible with weatherproofing against the legendary damp of London.
LIVING HISTORY
Consisting of around 100 photos, this was a visual approach to the places, people and cultures of 17 countries along the ancient Silk Road. It was a photographic journey of 40,000 kilometres that manages to squeeze in the United Kingdom at one end, with the more predictable Beijing at the other.
In centuries past. it was neither a road nor a single route; it was a sprawling network of trader arteries that covered thousands of miles across the continent of Eurasia. Indirectly, they connected China with Europe.
The exhibition shows how historical practices, rituals and customs live on today, and also reveals some of the connections between what appear at first glance to be very different cultures.
For any organisation interested in trade, the Silk Road is living history. The old version is these days being reconstructed on an unprecedented scale. Although not universally popular, China's "Belt and Road Initiative" is making Eurasia the heart of the largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever.
If it is eventually completed, a massive network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports could connect more than half of the world's population and radically alter the flow of global trade.
The vision is very much bigger than anything imagined by those Silk Road traders on their ad-hoc journeys in centuries past.
Follow Lucien de Guise at Instagram @crossxcultural.