Cross-cultural understanding in practice

For over 15 years Professor John Bowman diligently and lovingly accumulated his collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts. But since 1959, when the first pieces were acquired, information about the collection has remained under-researched and information about it, at best, uncertain. 

Expectations were high when in the mid-1990s, the British Council sponsored a UK scholar to travel to Australia to examine, identify and catalogue the collection now housed in the University of Melbourne’s Special Collections in the Baillieu Library. Unfortunately, the visiting scholar died on his return to England, and his notes lost.

“Lack of provenance information about this small but significant collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts has been a barrier to important conservation and identification of what is an important cultural and historic treasury,” says Robyn Sloggett, art authentication expert and director of the University’s Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC).

“Lack of information surrounding the manuscripts has prevented clear avenues for tracking pigment production centres, historical trade route investigation and comparison with similar international collections.”

So for over 50 years, until the recent visit of world renowned scholars of Islamic manuscripts, Mandana Barkeshli and Amir Zekrgoo from Malaysia’s International Islamic University sponsored by a Macgeorge Fellowship, the collection of bound and unbound manuscripts has remained largely unknown and under-researched.

“The opportunity to have experienced Islamic scholars view and interpret the collection provided invaluable information for current and future researchers, and allowed great understanding of the material we house,” Professor Sloggett says.

Acquired by Professor Bowman to promote greater learning of Middle Eastern culture and civilisation and to provide students with access to primary texts for research and teaching purposes, the collection was gifted to the University in 1972 by the then Department of Middle Eastern Studies. It contains some 190 original manuscripts, many of which are beautiful works of art and feature exquisite calligraphy and decoration. 

“The manuscripts are written mostly in Persian and Arabic, with some in Urdu, Syriac Turkisk, Prakrit, Mongol and Sanskrit,” says Sophie Lewincamp, who organised the visit by Dr Barkeshli and Dr Zekrgoo, and works at CCMC as a paper conservator and lecturer. She is also completing a PhD investigating parchment, pigment identification, and watermark identification in the Middle Eastern Manuscript Collection.

“The subject matter, mostly from the 19th century, but with some dating back to the 15th, varies from Qurans and religious texts, commentaries, dictionaries, books of grammar, poetry and love stories, and studies on law, philosophy, medicine, history and astrology,” she says.

Dr Barkeshli, with whom Ms Lewincamp has worked on Islamic conservation projects in Australia, Malaysia and England, heads the Department of Applied Arts and Design at the International Islamic University in Malaysia. She is a world-renowned conservation specialist and analyst of Middle Eastern manuscripts, with an academic reputation built on the extensive publication of scientific and historical research into Persian pigments and manuscript manufacture.

Dr Zedrgoo who, in addition to working alongside Dr Barkeshli at the International Islamic University in Malaysia, is Professor of Islamic and Oriental Arts at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation and an artist in his own right. He has widely published in English, Persian and Urdu on art and culture, the sacred art of marriage and Islamic history. 

“Over the month they spent with us, Dr Barkeshli’s and Dr Zedrgoo’s expertise complemented and extended the current research we’re undertaking at CCMC, and contributed to the provenance and catalogue information of the collection,” says Associate Professor Sloggett. “They brought skills to CCMC’s programs that don’t currently exist in house, but fall within our major research platforms.

“We anticipate this will be an ongoing partnership, with collaborations planned for research and future internships in Malaysia for our students.”

For Dr Barksheli and Dr Zedrgoo, the visit to Melbourne was both personally and academically inspiring.

“We enjoyed the cold crisp weather of July and August in Melbourne,” says Dr Zedrgoo, “and spending over a month with the selected manuscripts that we handpicked for close examination and research was fulfilling.”

Dr Zedrgoo also believes that a Middle Eastern collection such as that held at the Baillieu Library can contribute to cross-cultural understanding.

“History has great lessons for the modern man who often glorifies himself and regards himself as more ‘advanced’ in understanding, and more ‘tolerant’ of other cultures,” says Dr Zedrgoo. “The in-depth study of the collection actually elicits a higher degree of tolerance toward, and a deeper appreciation of other cultures.

“When we come across a 13th century Persian literary masterpiece, for example, the Gulistan of Sa’di scribed in the 19th century by the hand of an Indian master calligrapher in excellent Nasta’liq script, and commissioned in India by an Englishman, what does that communicate? 

“It’s cross-cultural understanding in practice. This is the most natural way of education, maybe the best way!”

cultural-conservation.unimelb.edu.au