By Mikel Gonzalez, Madrid – Spain

Let´s picture the Mediterranean as a vast museum, and the countries surrounding it´s shores as it´s galleries. Museum With no Frontiers idea is as simple, and as exciting, as that, and the exhibition program focuses in one common aspect: most of the involved countries share an Islamic past and still preserve beautiful buildings (let´s call them “museum pieces”) just waiting to be discovered by the discerning traveller. As for my country, Spain, the al-Andalus of poets like Al-Batalyawsî, Abû-l-Baqâ’Salah al-Rondî or Ibn al-Kûtîyya, it definitely hides one of the most amazing arrays of religious and civil buildings to be found in Southern Europe. For seven centuries most of the actual territory covering Spain and Portugal (al-Gharb al-Andalus, remember the “Algarve” region in our neibouring country) was the proud possession of the Ommeyad and Abbasi khalifs, and artists and architects from Damascus and Bagdad planted the seed of what would soon become a huge and self-inspired construction program. Mozarabes (Christians allowed to work for the Muslim lords) and Mudejares (mudayyan, “those allowed to stay” in the Iberian peninsula after the completion of the christian Reconquist) developed their own styles, so delicate and original that the Unesco decided to protect them as World Heritage. And if everyone knows the lavish Alhambra (al-Hamra, “the red one”) in Granada or the unbelievable Great Mosque (jamma al-Masjid, or “aljama” as we say) nested in Cordoba, few are still the curious travellers willing to skip battered fields and venture into Teruel to amaze themselves with fantastic Mudejar “skyscrapers”, or see the humble old ice-deposits of Valdealgorfa (al-Gurfa). With thousands of Arabic origin words in our language, Spaniards are sometimes not that conscious of the enormous amount of gratitude we ow to our Islamic forefathers: they enriched our vocabulary, defined our urban and rural landscape for centuries, and gifted us with distinctive poetry, science, traditions, art and architecture. MWNF trails offer a unique opportunity to discover this legacy of hidden treasures.

By Mandi Gomez, London – United Kingdom

The recently launched Museum With No Frontiers (MWNF) Travel portal offers a travel experience like no other for groups of seven or more people, delivers unique insight into various areas of cultural interest, and exemplifies responsible travel. Each of the tours offered in the 2009–10 programme focuses on a specific theme of Islamic Art in the Mediterranean within North Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe, and features a selection of art and architecture seldom seen on the tourist trail and not commonly presented in most travel guides or tour programmes.

The relevant thematic guide is available in print or as an e-book for travellers to peruse beforehand. They are based on the MWNF Exhibition Trail format where instead of moving the works of art, it is the visitor who moves around to discover monuments, archaeological sites and artefacts at museums within their natural environment. Researched and written by local scholars, Islamic history is told from the local perspective, an ethos upheld by the MWNF Travel platform.

All MWNF tour guides are qualified to at least degree level in the subject of the tour and are expert in the local history of the area. Unusually, MWNF publishes the names of its local partner travel agents, taking a small commission from all tours sold. This income is reinvested to manage and sustain the world’s largest online Museum (www.discoverislamicart.org), which in itself is an extraordinary free resource for academics, students and the intelligent reader alike.

MWNF demonstrates a dedication to inclusive, responsible travel in other ways too. It has devised and overseen various conservation initiatives in the countries concerned, and augmented and supplied signage to provide information about various monuments and sites. In doing this, it has given back visibility and significance to many of them and successfully secured funding and attracted publicity to support further conservation projects.

Importantly, therefore, MWNF has been successful in invigorating a forgotten or at least a depleted cultural pride in some areas. MWNF promotes local heritage: monuments and archaeological sites, museums and their collections, juxtaposing the very well known among them with the less prominent. By presenting cultural heritage in this way, MWNF allows unique insight into the subject of Islamic Art.

MWNF will inspire you whichever doorway you choose to enter it from: whether it’s through reading one of the thematic guides, via the Virtual Museum or in person on a MWNF Travel tour.

By MWNF Egypt

The classical historian Herodotus described Egypt as “the gift of The Nile”, for without the irrigation provided by the waters of Africa’s greatest river, Egypt would have no agriculture. On reaching Cairo, the river forms the Nile Delta, the most populous and representative of her regions. As such, the Delta has always been closely associated with the countries of the Mediterranean, and , in turn, has maintained unbroken contact with her neighbours.

Following her conquest by ‘Amr Ibn al-’As in 20 AH/640 AD, Egypt ceased to be part of the Eastern Empire and would find her identity within the greater Islamic State. With the exception of the times in which she achieved independence, such as under the Tulunids and the Ikhshidids, Egypt was to remain a dependent province of the Caliphates of Medina, Damascus and Baghdad. In the Ayyubid era the Sultan al-Malik al-Salih began the acquisition of young Turkish slaves destined to form the elite personal guard of the sultans. These were the soldier-slaves (mamluk), who would bring down the Ayyubid dynasty. During the reign of Mamluk sultans (648/1250-922/1517), Egypt was to become a great power.

Islamic art in Egypt reached its peak during the era of the Mamluk Sultans. They took advantage of ’s enormous cultural legacy in order to develop their arts. Consequently, highly skilled Mamluk artisans and artists adopted all that was unique to Egypt’s own heritage and worked masterfully with the abundant materials available to them.

They were to find inspiration for their craftsmanship in artistic themes from different cultures, above all from their own Mamluk homelands. During this period their perfectly constructed buildings brought together harmony of theme in delicately finished works of art of unprecedented quality.