The School of Wisdom

The miniature is read from bottom to top — like an ascent up steps, where each tier stands higher than the last, in body and in spirit. At the very water's edge, below, hands are busy with a coarse and pure labour: here Bukhara paper is made — the sheets are soaked, pressed out in a round vat, and hung up to dry. Nearby, figures bow in ablution, and the clay jug at their feet, the fresh cloth in the attendant's hands, speak of the same care — to set the outward in order. This is the threshold of every path: law and purity, the preparing of raw material. As a cloudy fibre, through water and labour, becomes a sheet ready to receive the word, so a man begins with the cleansing of that which is without. A tier higher, labour of another kind is in full swing. In the maktab a stern mentor with a rod governs his pupils: one is diligently bent over a book, another is being chastened for negligence. In the courtyard texts are copied, reed pens are mended, ink is ground. And to the left, by the fire and the cauldron, dough is kneaded, water is carried, firewood is split — the abode feeds itself, and daily bread is baked beside the bread of knowledge. The figure with a staff at the centre binds these scenes together, as a shepherd binds his flock: this is the level of the path under guidance, where obedience and daily effort gradually tame the wilful 'self'. Higher still, by the tiled dome, two figures are already withdrawn from the bustle: one has grown still, cheek propped on his hand, in thought, the other stands on the threshold of an opening. This is the silence of knowing with the heart — the contemplation that seeks no more books. And at the very summit a man has raised his palms to his ears. The adhan passing into the takbir: the call that wakes the soul from sleep, and at the same time the entry into standing before God, when the whole world is cast behind one's back. Having passed through water, labour, study and submission, the soul at last hears the single Sound — and the seething of the cauldron, the thud of the axe, the rustle of the sheets below fall silent for its sake. Ten months went into this work. About the work The work continues the tradition of the Bukhara miniature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with its heritage of the Herat circle: a multi-tiered composition in which several scenes live on a single sheet, a dense colouring and the finest delineation of figures, grasses and tiles. The subject of the life of the maktab — an abode where one teaches, labours and prays — allows the whole sheet to be read as an allegory of the ascent up the steps of the Sufi path: from outward purification and law, through the discipline of apprenticeship and knowing with the heart, to direct standing before the Truth. Such an allegory is close to the spirit of the didactic poetry of Maverannahr, in which craft and everyday labour invariably turned into an image of inner work. The scene of papermaking is a rare and precious detail: the craft for which Bukhara was famed is shown here not in full, but recognizably, as the foundation of all written knowledge. Details Base: Natural handmade Bukhara silk paper (90% silk, 10% cotton) Technique: Tempera, watercolour, natural plant and mineral pigments, gold leaf (23 carat) Unique piece