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Legendary figures and stories
From the Vault

Legendary figures and stories

Legendary figures and stories

Adel El Siwi Asmahan (Syrian singer and Druze princess), Mixed media on canvas, 140 x 170 cm, 2008. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

By Rym Al-Ghazal
August 23rd, 2020
“The secrets of the sun are yours, but you Content yourself with motes trapped in its beams…”—Farid al-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds.

Celebrities that still inspire the imagination, leaders that continue to intrigue, humble symbols that became powerful statements of courage, and timeless poems with pearls of wisdom— still relevant today—in this special collection of artworks courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, we discover the many faces and facets of legends.

Farah Behbehani, The Story of the Peacock, Serigraph on paper, 38.2 x 93 cm, 2008. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

From Kuwait, the artist Farah Behbehani explores The Conference of the Birds, a 12th-century mystical epic by the Persian poet Farid Al-Din Attar. A pinnacle of Sufism, the enchanting poem narrates the allegorical journey of a group of birds and the moral learning they encounter along their way. It begins with a meeting of all of the world’s birds to decide who will be their sovereign, because, at the moment,

they’re without a leader. The hoopoe, a solitary, territorial bird, and the wisest of all, proposes finding the simurgh (a mythical, benevolent bird related to the Phoenix) to resolve the dilemma. The hoopoe will then guide all the other birds where each of the birds represents a different human type – such as a coward and a lover—symbolic representations of the human vices which keep people away from enlightenment.

legendary arab icons
Chant Avedissian

Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egyptian president), Gouache on cardboard, 49 x 69 cm, 2008. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

Adel El Siwi

Asmahan (Syrian singer and Druze princess), Mixed media on canvas, 140 x 170 cm, 2008. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

Dia Azzawi

Handala, Bronze sculpture, 2011, 29 x 17 x 10 cm. The character of the ‘refugee boy’ is a personification of the Palestinian people and was created in 1969 by political cartoonist Naji al-Ali. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

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