JEDDAH, 1 January 2005 — The Barakat Trust, which has been involved in promoting research, funding travel grants, and spreading understanding of Islamic art, culture, architecture and archaeology, for the last 17 years, is planning to turn into an endowment, according to Hamida Alireza, one of the trustees.
Hamida told Arab News that since its establishment in 1987, Barakat’s source of income has not really increased but the application base has quadrupled.
“We need more help. We are seriously looking to secure an endowment,” said Reema Safadi, another trustee.
Barakat has extended grants to more than 200 individuals and institutions for study, travel, restoration, and preservation. “Nobody is refused grant,” she added.
“We have proven that there is a need for what we are doing. Besides contributing to the preservation and advancement of our heritage, people that we have helped have taken up fantastic positions worldwide,” Hamida said.
She said that trustees have been discussing the endowment possibility for quite some time, as it would ensure the future of the Trust. “We are conducting a campaign to promote the idea and secure more funds. What we get, we give. We do not have money in the bank.
“By creating an endowment, we will be able to invest. We want to make Barakat self-sustained, so that the work will continue even in our absence from the scene,” Reema added.
Hamida said that last year, Barakat organized a trip to Islamic historical sites in Syria for about 40 families. “The income from the venture was channeled into the proposed endowment,” she said.
Barakat also plans fund raising in London, and has other events on the cards. She said that the richness of Islamic heritage is being diminished, disregarded, distorted, and destroyed purposely and in ignorance, and in some instances even used to make money by unscrupulous people, often those responsible for their preservation.
There have been instances where reputed art auction houses have sold previously ripped off pages of rare Qur’an copies and manuscripts so as to make more money.
Tiles are ripped off from monuments, and sold individually defacing the friezes forever and destroying the dates and data on them.
There are instances where restoration work is done by normal modern-day contractors pouring portland cement into the medieval monuments, not realizing if the centuries old structures would be able to withstand that kind of treatment.
Hamida said that most of the people who are interested in Islamic art are not from the region.
According to Souren Melikian, a renowned art historian, many so-called historians of Islamic art are ill-equipped to deal with some of the issues they address because they have little understanding of the original text.
“When there is any misunderstanding or misrepresentation, nobody is there to answer them properly putting things in perspective,” she said.
“We have to educate ourselves. Be proud of our heritage before expecting others to understand and respect our heritage. We are overwhelmed by the beauty of the Renaissance.
“But where did this come from? You find its roots in the Islamic world,” the trustees said.
“There is a deep and silent onslaught against Islamic heritage. It is no less than the tsunamis, in power and destruction. We have to wake up or be washed away — the coming generations remaining oblivious of their rich heritage,” Hamida said.
