Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens houses more than 12,000 artefacts
More than 12 thousand artefacts reflecting Islamic culture shed light on Islamic history and culture at the Benaki Museum of Islamic Arts in the capital Athens.
Founded in 2004 with the private collection of Greek-born Antonis Benakis, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1873, the museum hosts a rich collection of artefacts collected from a wide geography such as India, Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, North Africa, Sicily and Spain.
The museum also includes many Islamic handicrafts such as ceramics, goldwork, weaving, wood carving, glass and mother-of-pearl engraving with their best examples.
BURSA WEAVINGS, IZNIK AND KÜTAHYA PORCELAINS
While most of the tiles and porcelains, which stand out with their blue and turquoise colours, come from Iznik and Kütahya, fabrics and rugs woven in Bursa are also included in the collection.
The room belonging to a chamberlain, where guests were hosted in Cairo in the 15th-18th centuries, reflects the living conditions of that period with its furniture and fountain.
The collection, which started to be collected in Egypt and includes artefacts from a wide period of time from the 7th century, when Islam was born, to the 19th century, is among the 13 most important collections of Islamic artefacts in the world today, according to the magazine "Saudi Aramco World".
THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ANDONIS BENAKISS
Mina Moraitu, Director of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Arts, said in a statement to AA correspondent that most of the works exhibited are those that Benakis, who gave his name to the museum, added to his collection when he lived in Alexandria.
Emphasising that the works in the museum are one of the two museums in Greece that exhibit a civilisation other than Greek civilisation, Moraitu said, "It is a very important museum because it reflects the arts of societies that are not very far from Greece but very different from Greece."
Moraitu said that the museum attracts visitors from many different countries as well as Greeks, and that sometimes one gets the impression that the museum is better known abroad than in Greece.
Stating that most of the artefacts of the Ottoman period in the museum, especially weaving, ceramics and metalwork, were obtained from Egypt, Moraitu emphasised that these works reveal the characteristics and identity of Ottoman art.
Moraiti pointed out that Ottoman artefacts mostly include floral figures.
Reminding that the British traveller and artist Thomas Hope, who travelled to Istanbul in the late 18th century, had collaborated with the Turkish Embassy in Athens in the past for the exhibition "Sketches of Ottoman Istanbul", Moraiti said that he had written the book "The Magic of Iznik Ceramics" published by Benaki Publications in collaboration with John Carswell.
Moraiti said that most of the Iznik ceramics in the collection were exhibited in an exhibition in Alexandria in 1925, which was "the first exhibition of Islamic arts in Egypt".
