IRCICA Award for Patronage in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Promotion of Research 2003

Attached to Sabancı University (Istanbul), one of the most important art museums of Turkey. The patron of this museum, Mr. Sakıp Sabancı, has made an invaluable contribution to the art of calligraphy for many years by introducing its masterpieces to major museums of Europe and America. The Sabancı family allocated the building that accommodated the family for over fifty years, known as the Equestrian Villa, to this museum. Its collection comprises over four hundred works of calligraphy dating from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries and more than three hundred paintings dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This award is presented in recognition of the exemplary patronage extended for the preservation and promotion of the classical Islamic arts and effectively informing the public about this artistic heritage. Thus the museum fulfils in an excellent way the objective for which it was founded: preserving the arts and developing a museum as “a laboratory of ideas”, while performing a social mission, namely bringing the art collections of the Sabancı family under a public institute.

The first private museum of Turkey and an important ethnological museum in Istanbul. The plaque will be presented to Mrs. Semahat Arsel, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Vehbi Koç Foundation, who will receive it on behalf of Mrs. Sevgi Gönül, her late sister, who was the Chair of the Executive Board of the Museum and who supervised throughout the museum’s development phase. The nucleus of this Museum consisted of the embroideries that the two sisters’ mother Mrs. Sadberk Koç had collected. Over the years it expanded into a large institution that comprises two departments, the Art History Section and the Archaeological Section. Sadberk Hanım Museum appears as a distinctive example in its field in that it presents the art collection of the Koç Family within the framework of a dynamic cultural center that keeps up with the contemporary developments. It houses a rich collection of art objects ranging from the pre-Islamic period to the periods of early Islamic art, Seljuk, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Timurid, Safavid and Ottoman arts. The museum reflects a major part of the cultural heritage of civilisations of Asia Minor and the Middle East. The patronage invested in it is important especially because it produced a rich fund of references for historians of art and culture.

An eminent scholarly and museum institution in Granada, Spain. The distinguished scholar Mr. Jeronimo Paez, the Director of El Legado Andalusi, will receive the award plaque. The foundation aims to preserve and disseminate Andalusian cultural heritage with particular emphasis on the Hispano-Muslim period and the mutual influences in the Mediterranean area throughout the centuries. The Foundation belongs to the Regional Government of Andalusia and enjoys the participation of the Spanish Government. Its Honorary President is H.M. Juan Carlos I, King of Spain. Its main objectives are: making the Hispano-Muslim civilization better known including its artistic and architectural heritage; highlighting the role Spain and Andalusia played throughout history as the cultural bridge between the East and the West; strengthening the relations of Spain and Andalusia with the Arab World, the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and Latin American countries; promoting the common history and heritage with other countries to establish a better mutual understanding and to increase the common cultural wealth. Thus El Legado Andalusi plays an important role in bringing out the common bases of the world’s cultures, a most needed task of our time.

A remarkable center of learning and research aimed at preserving the history, arts and cultural heritage of the Islamic world. The awrad plaque will be presented to Mr. Syed Mohammad Albukhary, the distinguished Director of the museum and Head of Albukhary Foundation. With its vast repositories of architecture, calligraphy, paintings, and other arts and crafts, the museum holds an admirable collection of treasures. The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia was officially opened in 1998, born from the efforts of the Albukhary Foundation, which provided for the majority of the funds for the museum, with the assistance of the Malaysian government and the Islamic Religious Department of the Federal Territories of Malaysia. The first museum of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, it distinguishes itself with its emphasis on the diversity of Islamic peoples and cultures and the multi-cultural heritage of Malaysia, Asia, and the Muslim world at large.

An eminent cultural authority from the Yemen. IRCICA holds in esteem his personal and professional qualities as a promoter of culture and learning in the Yemen and the Muslim world. Specialised on the primary sources of Islamic culture and literature, Ismail bin Ali Al-Aqwa engaged in academic career and in political life. He assumed missions in the government of Yemen and became Minister of Information in 1967. His outstanding contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage was his proposal, in 1969, to establish the General Authority for Relics and Libraries. This authority was attached to the Presidency of Yemen, and Al-Aqwa became its President. In this capacity, Al-Aqwa performed various scholarly activities to promote the archeological and manuscript heritage of his country and the Arab world. In the late 70s, he was a member of the OIC’s preparatory committee for the establishment of our Centre, IRCICA. He wrote numerous works on the literary and architectural heritage of Yemen, on the centres of learning in Yemen, dialects, proverbs of Yemen, historical monuments, genealogies of tribes, Arab history. The esteem placed on him is expressed in the attribute Qadi, indicating his authoritative scholarship.