One of the hardest things tour guide Brad and tour guide Keryn ran into was the odd hours of every site. For some reason, I was expecting places like churches to be open from, say, 9-5, or maybe 9-4, or something along those lines. And I was expecting the museums to be open till, say, 8pm.
Hahahahahaha.
This was naïve.
Some churches were open for long hours–for example, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is open from 5am to 7pm. But St. Anne’s is only open from 8-12am and 2-5pm. Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount, or Dome of the Rock) is open from 7-11am and 1:30 – 3:00 (they actually stop letting people in at 2:30). The Israel Museum is closes at 5pm most days (open from 5-9 on Tuesdays). The Rockefeller is only open five days a week from 10-3pm.
So if you aren’t the nightlife type of person (and we aren’t), there was less to do in the evenings in Jerusalem than we might have expected. Sometimes I would just do google searches for “things to do in the evening in Jerusalem”, but most of the time we ran into the “nightlife” problem. But during one search, we found something called the “The Museum of Islamic Art” which was open until 7pm on Thursdays.
Perfect! Not only was it open later than most places, but we would be given a different perspective of art and artifacts in the Holy Land–most everything we have looked at has a distinctly Israeli flavor. We had high hopes to understand the other major population in this region.
We took a taxi to get to the museum, as it was a bit of a walk from the Rockefeller Museum and it was hot. The museum was smaller than I was expecting, and also…not what I was expecting. (Much smaller, nothing about calligraphy as an art form, lots of cool watches that had nothing to do with Islamic Art, and oddly super apathetic workers…) But it was a fun, air-conditioned way to spend a few hours, and I got to see some very beautiful gemstones. So win-win!
How old is the traditional “heart” shape? A lot older than I ever thought possible, that’s for sure! This is a drinking vessel from 8th century AD Iran. Isn’t that amazing? It looks so incredibly modern to my eyes. More hearts! These jewelry pieces were part of a hoard found in one of the main goldsmithing centers of the Islamic world. Hoards are rare, and jewelry is often melted down–when it goes out of style–to make new pieces. Gold, amethyst, emerald, carnelian–maybe a moonstone? 10-12th C CE. Syria or Egypt.Pig-shaped oil lamp, 12th C Iran, bronze. Wait, pig? I thought those were unclean. But here it is, and so cute he is. Early Islamic gold jewelry (6th – 8th C CE), influenced by Byzantine styles and techniques. I love the delicate wires and whorls. Look at this die and dominos–when do you think they were crafted and used? Would you guess 50, 100, 200, maybe 400 years ago? The die is very modern looking, the dominos a little older.
Would you have guessed 1200 – 1400 years old? I sure wouldn’t have, and yet they are from the 6th – 8th C CE. Made of ivory, and looking like they just came from the game of Clue I have on my shelf. So amazing.The Iranian city of Kashan was so famous for its tiles and pottery that these types of tiles are called “kashi”. I love the animals decorated within the star and circle shapes. These would have been used in secular buildings, as those for religious buildings would have plants, abstract, or calligraphic designs. 9th C CE.This not-great picture is showing different chess pieces. I learned a ton from the explanatory sign here–for example, I knew that chess came from the Near East, and is quite ancient. And I remember reading somewhere that the game was useful for military strategy. But I didn’t realize that many of the pieces changed after reaching Europe–for example, the queen was originally a male vizier; the rook was a chariot (apparently the Sanskrit word for chariot, ratha, was corrupted to “rukh”, a type of bird), though why it is a castle tower I have no idea; the bishop was originally an elephant! 10th C Nishapur chess pieces. Sword hilts! I’m loving the rock crystal and rubies and the jade and rubies. Just think of an 18th C. swordsman pulling this out of his scabbard to fight the highwaymen or whatever!Ideas for decorating Easter eggs! 20th C glazed ceramic eggs, for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year festival. Gorgeous enameled and gilded glass from Syria, late 12th C AD.Jade!!! No idea if it is jadeite or nephrite (my suspicion is nephrite, given the era and the look), with rubies, emeralds, and gold inlay. It is spectacular! 16-18th C AD, Mughal period.Rock crystal (colorless quartz) and emeralds and rubies, inlaid with gold. 16-18th C AD, Mughal period.More beautiful, creamy jade. Turquoise, pearl, sapphires, emeralds, with gold inlay. 16-18th C AD, Mughal period.I can’t get enough of this inlaid jade. This is the same empire as the Taj Mahal–and you can tell, with the gorgeous inlay. 16-18th C AD, Mughal period.Pair of brooches, 9th C, gold and diamonds. Look at the diamonds’ cut! Not what we would consider “excellent” cut, but for the time this was the height of technology. Peacock, but really it could be a chicken, right? It’s all in the eye of the beholder. 🙂 18th C Iranian brass. 19th-20th C earrings, Central Asia, Bukhara made of gold, pearls, and tourmalines! I’m going to use this is my gems class. I’m excited to show this to my students at the beginning of class, and have them write a description down. And then at the end of the semester, when they’ve learned all about facets and cabochon, grades of gold, pearl farming and natural pearls, etc. LaDonna, chilling in front of a pierced window, Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem.My children were SO exited that Disney Plus was going to be available in Israel on June 16, because their US login wouldn’t work here. Except their US login wouldn’t work after June 16 either, because it was a US login. Hahahaha. Oh well. This was the logo on one of the tour bus companies that are ubiquitous around Jerusalem. A melting butterfly? A butterfly with its wings falling apart? A butterfly with leprosy? It was not a win with me.
