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Taasa Review Susan Scollay, Guest Editor the ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY of AUSTRALIA INC VOLUME 21 NO. 1 MARCH 2012 the journal of the asian arts society of australia TAASA Review THE PERSIAN ART OF POETRY C o n t E n t s Volume 21 No. 1 March 2012 3 Editorial: the PErsian art of PoEtry taasa rEViEW Susan Scollay, Guest Editor THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. ABN 64093697537 • Vol. 21 No. 1, March 2012 4 LOVE AND DEVOTION: FROM PERSIA AND BEYOND – AN EXHIBITION AT THE SLV ISSN 1037.6674 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Susan Scollay EditorIAL • email: [email protected] 8 PoEtry in thE iranian PSYChE: rEFLECtions on oMAR KHAYYAM’S RUBAIYAT General editor, Josefa Green Mammad Aidani publiCations Committee 11 LOVE or dEVOTION? froM PErsia or thE BEYOND – a PErsian sUFI PERSPECTIVE Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Rafal Stepien Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes Charlotte Galloway • Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor 14 ‘WASHING HYPoCRISY’S DUST’: PERSIAN PoETRY AND PoPULAR IRANIAN MUSIC Susan Scollay • Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner Gay Breyley dEsiGn/layoUt Ingo Voss, VossDesign 17 DISCoVERING PERSIAN MUSIC PrintinG Philippe Charluet John Fisher Printing Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. 19 POLITICs and PERSIAN MYTHOLOGy in thoMAS MOORE’S PARADISE AND THE PERI PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 Shelley Meagher www.taasa.org.au Enquiries: [email protected] 22 PErsia and BEYOND: tWo rECEnt aCQUISITIONS By thE statE liBrary of ViCTORIA Clare Williamson TAASa Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASa Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and 24 TRAVEl in iran: BEtWEEn aWESOME dEsErts and EXQUISITE UNREALITIEs performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and Christopher Wood subscription to TAASa Review are available on request. No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of 25 in thE PUBLIC doMAIN: AN INDONESIAN QUR’AN IN AGSA The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. James Bennett No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TaaSa Review as a result of material published within its pages or 26 BOOK REViEW: PERSIAN ARTS OF THE BOOK in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter Susan Scollay or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages 28 2011 taasa CaMBodia toUr or liabilities that may arise from material published. John Millbank All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. 28 BOITRAN BEATTIE-hUYNH: 1957 – 2012 TAASA MEMBERSHIP ratEs Ann Proctor $70 Single $90 Dual $95 Libraries (in Australia) 29 TAASA 20th anniVERSARY PARTY $35 Concession (full-time students under 26, pensioners Sandra Forbes and unemployed with ID, Seniors Card not included) $115 Overseas (individuals and libraries) 29 TAASA Members’ diary: MARCH – MAY 2012 advertisinG ratEs 30 What’s on in aUstralia and oVErsEas: MARCH – MAY 2012 TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Compiled by Tina Burge Rates below are GST inclusive. Back page $850 Full inner page $725 Half page horizontal $484 Third page (vertical or horizontal) $364 Half column $265 Insert $300 For further information re advertising, including discounts for regular quarterly advertising, please contact [email protected] the dEadline for all artiClEs for our next issue is 1 April 2012 iBrahiM holding coUrt, LEAF FROM A DISBOUND MANUSCRIPT OF Firdausi, Shahnama, C.1430 the dEadline for all aDvertisinG AD, SHIRAz, BODLEIAN Library, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, SEE PP4-7 OF THIS ISSUE. for our next issue is 1 May 2012 A fUll index of artiClEs PUBlishEd in TAASA Review since its BEGinninGs in 1991 is aVailaBle on the TAASA web sitE, WWW.taasa.orG.aU 2 t a a s a C o mm i t t ee E d i t o r i a l : t h E PE RSIAN ART OF P o E t r y Gill Green • President Susan Scollay, Guest Editor Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture Christina sUMnER • Vice President ‘ Principal Curator, Design and Society, The focus of this issue is a landmark exhibition century Sufi poet Attar, while scholar and Powerhouse Museum, Sydney at the State Library of Victoria (SLV) from 9 playwright, Mammad Aidani, evaluates ANN GUILD • TREASURER March to 1 July, 2012. Love and Devotion: From the philosophic legacy of ‘Attar’s near Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) Persia and Beyond celebrates the beauty of contemporary, Omar Khayyam. dy andrEasEn • SECRETARY Persian manuscripts and literature. The world Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry of Persian stories and the illustrated volumes Gay Breyley, an ethnomusicologist, explores Hwei-fE’n ChEah in which they were copied spread beyond interconnections between Persian poetry Visiting Fellow, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian the territorial borders of Iran, unifying a and other art forms, especially music. The National University. cultural zone that incorporated Central Asia versatility of Persian lyrics, she argues, has JoCELYN ChEy and the empires of the Mughals in India and allowed their constant adaptation to changing Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia and southeast political contexts. Shelley Meagher reveals the University of Sydney; former diplomat Europe. Articles exploring aspects of Love way the poet, Thomas Moore, made use of Matt CoX and Devotion have been written by specialists key aspects of Persian poetry to comment on Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South who have played a role in developing the national affairs of his native Ireland. Philippe Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of exhibition, and others whose research and Charluet and Christopher Wood contribute Southeast Asia experience relates to the exhibition themes. more personal insights into the poetic world Philip CoUrtEnay of the Persians: through the music with which Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, James It is exactly 5 years since TAASA Review poetry is inextricably linked and through Cook University, with a special interest in Southeast dedicated an issue to the ‘Arts of Islam’ and reflection on Iran’s complex cultural landscape. Asian ceramics quoted the pre-eminent London collector lUCiE folan and philanthropist, Nasser Khalili, calling Finally Clare Williamson, Exhibitions Curator Assistant Curator, Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia for world citizens of all faiths to engage in at the SLV, and James Bennett, Curator of sandra forbes dialogue and acknowledge the ‘ties that Asian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia Editorial consultant with long-standing interest have existed among them for centuries.’ By (AGSA), report on the increasing number of in South and Southeast Asian art presenting the world of Persian storytelling significant manuscripts from the Islamic world JosEfa Green and poetry from the classic period of secular entering public collections in Australia. The General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese Persian literature, the SLV exhibition offers AGSA remains our only cultural institution ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian a significant response to that call. Although dedicating a permanent gallery space to art as student and traveller little known in the West, Persian poetry’s the various arts of Islam, yet the SLV has Min-JUnG KiM universal themes of love and devotion – to shown considerable initiative in expanding Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum lover, friend, teacher, ruler and the Divine – its collection of Persian and other eastern ANN PROCTOR reveal echoes and parallels with European manuscripts and in developing this exhibition Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam literature and the complex ideals and in association with the Bodleian Libraries. YukiE sato practices of mediaeval and pre-Renaissance Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of life and patronage in both east and west. By so doing the SLV has positioned itself the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art alongside leading international institutions and culture Persian literature, seen through the lens of its seeking to challenge long-held notions of SABrina snoW memorable stories and great poets, is imbued perceived opposition between east and Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South with love, often in allegorical form. Poetry west and uniformity in Islamic art forms Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China has been a key component of Iranian national by applying the more nuanced perspective hon. aUditor identity, but also appreciated and emulated of recent scholarship. Iran now stands at a Rosenfeld Kant and Co by others through the centuries. Exquisitely crossroad in its long history, yet its poetry and stories endure - at once deeply symbolic and s t a t E r ep r E s E n t a t i ve s illustrated and illuminated manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries at the University of approachable; celebrating Iran’s distant past, AUSTRALIAN Capital Territory Oxford dating from the 13th to 18th centuries, yet tolerant, relevant and astonishingly topical. roByn Maxwell together with rare works from the holdings of Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; the SLV and other Australian institutions will Note: The terms ‘Persia’ and ‘Iran’ have been Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia be displayed in the largest and most significant used almost interchangeably throughout this Northern Territory display of Persian manuscripts to be held issue. The language spoken by most Iranians is Joanna Barrkman in Australia. The Bodleian Libraries rarely ‘Farsi,’ but the term ‘Persian’ is widely accepted Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, allow such a large number of manuscripts to in English. Persian words and names have Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory travel for exhibition at the same time.
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