Rabat Hosts Major Exhibition: ’Treasures of Islam in Africa’ Showcases 13 Centuries of Art and Culture

To highlight 13 centuries of history through a journey through time combining art, archeology, architecture and ethnography. This is the objective of the exhibition that Rabat is about to host. For this unprecedented presentation, around 250 heritage and contemporary works of art from the Islamic cultures of sub-Saharan Africa will be available at the "Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art" (MMVI), and in the galleries of Bab El Kébir and Bab Rouah.

According to Aujourd’hui Le Maroc, this exhibition "aims to recount the history of the spread of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa and to show for the first time the artistic production of these Muslim societies". Three axes are taken into account in this exhibition, namely the paths of Islam to reveal the different ways of Islamization, the gestures of the sacred, which highlight the richness of the religious practices of the African continent, as well as the arts of Islam, south of the Sahara, which invite the visitor to an experience on the diffusion of forms and know-how across the continent.

Several structures have collaborated for the effectiveness of this exhibition, including the Royal Academy of Morocco, the Arab World Institute, the Ministry of Culture and the National Museums Foundation. Various cultural activities are also planned in this context, namely series of conferences by experts, historians, professors and researchers from diverse backgrounds, on several themes including "The Islamization of Africa in the Middle Ages", "Quran and books of devotion to the Prophet in Muslim Africa" and "Sub-Saharan African slavery in the Atlantic system".