"DO you know the way to San Diego?" would have been a less catchy lyric than Dionne Warwick's line about San Jose. Many more visitors around the world will, however, be more familiar with San Diego, mainly because of its zoo. California's most southerly city is also a place that art enthusiasts will be heading for in the next few months.
An 800-year-old polymath called Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (also known as Qazwini) is about to bring more science and natural splendour to San Diego than even the celebrated zoo. Wonders of Creation is the title of his book, written in 13th-century Iraq after the Mongol devastation of the Arab world.
Now his encyclopaedic work has been turned into an exhibition, and none of the wondrousness of his "Wonders" has been lost in the process. What was once words and the occasional illustration in a book is now a physical display of epic proportions.
The word cosmography comes up a lot at the San Diego Museum of Art. The exhibition "Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World" is a more visual entity than that. Qazwini wanted to know about everything, to record everything.
His book became a literary and scientific sensation. It was less Isaac Newton and more David Attenborough — he intended to inspire through wonder.
As well as hoping to satisfy the human craving for understanding, Qazwini also wanted to bring us closer to God. In this sense, he would not have been a bestseller in the 21st century. His world was the Islamic world.
In his day, this covered a lot of ground, but he would have been truly astounded if he could see how far the message had travelled over the intervening eight centuries. Although San Diego is hardly the Islamic heartland, it is as receptive to the message of Qazwini as anywhere else that is alive with curiosity and a sense of aesthetics.
UNDERTAKING OF CONSEQUENCE
Without doubt it is the visual side of the new exhibition that will bring Californians and other visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art. The artefacts on display are not quite what Qazwini had in mind with "wonders of creation", but they are absolutely what a modern audience is eager to see.
Islamic art's position as one of the most universal forms of creative accomplishment doesn't make it any easier to find. The number of dedicated museums or collections is small and tends to be concentrated in either major metropolises or the Middle East.
Now the art has come to San Diego, and it is clearly an undertaking of consequence. The museum website mentions an additional charge of US$5 for this show, "due to the staff and logistics necessary…"
This is not caused solely by the breadth of the objects on display, which cover 13 centuries and include everywhere from Africa and Spain, to Southeast Asia. Yes, the Malay world gets more than a mention — it's almost the star of the show.
Of the more than 200 works on display, a large proportion have been lent by the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Not that all these loans relate to Southeast Asia, but at least the region is represented in spirit as well as in artefacts.
Another important element in San Diego is the sense of creative continuity. In addition to the classics of Islamic-art collecting, there is a strong component of the contemporary. Some of the seminal figures in 20th and 21st century art are represented.
Works of Iranian inspiration by Parviz Tanavoli and the recently deceased Monir Farmanfarmaian rub shoulders with that living colossus of Japanese-Islamic art, Fuad Kouichi Honda. All look back to earlier traditions, though.
TRADITIONS AND THEORIES
Most important of all is Qazwini's vision. His book describes the universe and its natural phenomena. Excerpts from its two major sections — the celestial and terrestrial realms — are displayed in pages of his work produced in many countries and in languages as varied as Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
I didn't spot the text in Bahasa Melayu, but at the time Qazwini lived, Southeast Asia had only the briefest encounter with Islamic philosophy. He did cover much of the ground that has fascinated every society with an interest beyond the entirely superficial.
Astronomy is a major factor. Qazwini acquired knowledge from different traditions and developed theories that will be way beyond the comprehension of most visitors. Fortunately, there are objects d'art to back up his ideas.
Where would we be without the astrolabe, surely the most visually appealing object of practical utility? The exhibition makes good use of this captivating device. Although not exclusive to the Islamic world, that is where some of the finest examples ever created come from.
Astrology is another important component, although modern Muslim thinking has become rather wary of some of the old beliefs. In the past, astrology was not feared as a way of letting superstition ruin rational lives. Instead, it was considered a natural science, along with medicine, by none other than the Islamic world's most renowned physician and philosopher, the 11th-century Ibn Sina.
In his day and for centuries later, the practice of astrology was rooted in understanding the location and configurations of stars in order to harness celestial powers for the production of wondrous effects. This might include identifying auspicious moments for anything from a wedding to a war, or predicting the course of a person's life based on their date and time of birth.
WONDERS OF ARTS AND CRAFTS
Qazwini and the exhibition cover much more than that. After a while, visitors may begin to wonder what field of knowledge might not have caught his attention. There is everything from healing and weaving to personal adornment and pottery.
And there are objects to match. He even had time to discuss the craftsmanship of Noah's Ark and to consider the big questions of architecture and town planning. Among the many quotes provided by the exhibition is the relatively straightforward appreciation of a cityscape, as opposed to his usual pursuit of nature: "Any time you look upon a fine building, your heart is filled with happiness."
How deliriously happy he would have been if he had lived to see the wonders of art and crafts that came out of the Islamic world after his lifetime.
Qazwini may have lived in a golden age of philosophy, but the splendour of cultures to come — such as the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals — was something that this far-sighted thinker might not have imagined.
"Wonders of Creation: Art, Science and Innovation in the Islamic World" opens at the San Diego Museum of Art on Sept 7.
Follow Lucien de Guise at Instagram @crossxcultural