Last week, I spotted a small article with a photo in a local newspaper about an exhibition being held at a gallery in Mohandiseen by fine artist Mohamed el-Nasser about Islamic Cairo. The exhibition was inaugurated by the archaeologist Zahi Hawass. The story caught my eye, especially as we were in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, when Islamic Cairo is full of people praying in its mosques and soaking up the district's rich history. A few days after that, I had my iftar (the fast-breaking meal), then decided to go to the exhibition and talk to the artist and fellow visitors to the exhibition. When I got there at 9:15pm I was in for a surprise. There were two men sitting outside the gallery and one of them asked me: "Any service?" "Yes please, I'd like to enter the gallery," I replied. Then the man asked a third man to "open the gallery for the Miss". "Am I the only visitor? Where is the artist? Where are all his fans? Why is the gallery closed?" I wondered anxiously. My endless questions were interrupted when the man unlocked the door and turned on the lights. I was amazed by the beautiful paintings and their wonderful details, completing forgetting that I was on my own. One was of an old man holding a cymbal in each hand, surrounded by a big crowd of people who'd come from all over Egypt to celebrate the moulid of Sultan Abul Ela. Another was of a smiling young woman wearing a red scarf and a black galabiya, while in the far distant background stands the Mosque of Zaher Beibars, the famous Mamluk Sultan. I could almost hear the people from Lower and Upper Egypt singing their religious songs, as they stood outside the wonderful mosque of Al-Azhar and el-Hussein, in two other paintings. Another painting depicted a man making colourful kheyam (tents), an ancient craft in Egypt, while there was also one of someone selling iriqsous (liquorice) drinks in Moez Lideen Allah Street. At the gallery, there are also paintings of the artist himself, not related to Islamic Cairo, but to the nature of Egyptians as a whole. The artist himself is from Qena, Upper Egypt, which explains why he has focused on Upper Egyptians. A cheerful-looking, dark-skinned housewife wearing a blue galabiya and black hijab sits on a street corner with her hand on her chin, selling oranges. Then there is a wonderful portrait of a woman from Siwa Oasis, 560km from Cairo, in the entrance to the gallery, wearing her Bedouin clothes, adorned with their special accessories. After finishing my tour of Islamic Cairo, I left the gallery. But where was the man who'd let me in and the other two security guards? Just imagine – I could easily have walked out with a painting, rather like the person who stole the precious artwork by Van Gogh from a museum in Giza last month! Mohamed el-Nasser's exhibition about Islamic Cairo, being held at Qortoba Gallery, 3 Degla Street, off Gameat el- Dawal Street, Mohandiseen, runs until September 25. For more information, please call: 02/3338-1055.
