A PICTURE is worth a thousand words and his photo exhibition tells it all. Egypt's Saeed el-Maghrabi loved it with all his heart. He admired its every street, monument and garden, and he wanted to tell his fellow Egyptians about his passion for Uzbekistan. "My exhibition shows how art, heritage and civilisation can play a role in the rapprochement between peoples," el-Maghrabi, the Chairman of the Union of Egyptians in Central Asia, told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. "I want my lens to let Egyptians know about the charms of Uzbekistan, a part of our Islamic world." Officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, the country was formerly part of the Soviet Union. Anation landlocked on all sides, it shares borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Most of Uzbekistan's population today belongs to the Uzbek ethnic group and speaks the Uzbek language, part of the family of Turkic languages. Islam is by far the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, as Muslims constitute 90 per cent of the population, according to a 2009 US State Department release. Approximately 5 per cent of the population are Russian Orthodox Christians. Tashkent, its capital, is the birthplace of a plethora of worldfamous scholars and theologians. In recent years, the country has rehabilitated and restored sanctuaries, mausoleums, tombs and burial-vaults harbouring the remains of prominent representatives of the Muslim world, such as Abu Mohamed Ibn at Termezi, Bakhoutdin Nakshbandi, Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Moturidi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Amir Temur and Burkhoniddin Margilani. Uzbekistan has acquired a lot of authority in the Islamic world, to the extent that Tashkent was proclaimed the Capital of the World's Islamic Culture in 2007. El-Maghrabi's exhibition is his first in Egypt. He's held three others, two in Tashkent and one in Congo-Brazzaville. His lens has captured the beautiful spring and autumn nature of Uzbekistan, with its beautiful gardens and flowers, giving way to the cold weather and falling leaves. As a Muslim, he hasn't overlooked the country's wonderful Islamic architecture, apparent in its striking mosques with their domes. El-Maghrabi's exhibition includes a photo of the Shahi Zinda Mausoleum in Samarkand, which reflects an architectural style passed on to the Muslim world by the Syrian Christians. His three-year stay in Uzbekistan brought him close to its people. There's another lovely photo of some Uzbeki women wearing colourful galabias, their heads covered with hijabs. With their tanned skin, they're not unlike Upper Egyptian women. Then there's a photo of a statue of Mahmoud Mokhtar, the father of modern Egyptian sculpture, which stands proudly outside the Academy of Art in Uzbekistan, while a beautiful, smiling young Uzbeki woman stands serenely next to it. In the same exhibition, there are photos with an Egyptian touch. The Nile, which the Egyptian civilisation has depended on since ancient times, is the theme of most of them. One photo shows a seagull standing on a rock in the Nile. Another depicts a village in the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan 'in the hug' of a mountain and overlooking the Nile. There are other photos of Egyptian monuments, mausoleums and temples. The exhibition, entitled ‘Between the Nile and the Silk Road - A Journey', relates to the Nile in Egypt and Uzbekistan, which is the junction and the centre of an ancient caravan road which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, called the Great Silk Road. "Each photo explains Saeed's message of love for Uzbekistan and its people," Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Egypt Shah Azim Monorov told The Gazette. "The similarity in traditions and heritage between the two countries appears clearly in the photos. I hope Egyptians enjoy them." ‘Between the Nile and the Silk Road - A Journey', being held in Al-Kalema Hall at Sawy Cultural Centre in the upmarket area of Zamalek, ends tomorrow.
