Vienna museum shines spotlight on Austria's Islamic heritage

The Wien Museum on Thursday begins a three-part Summer Academy dedicated to Islamic heritage in Austria’s capital Vienna. 

In the first part on Thursday, experts and interested participants will examine objects “collected due to a long-standing fascination with what has long been referred to as the ‘Orient’,” according to an announcement.

In the following week, the Summer Academy will focus on traces of Islamic heritage in Vienna's public space. The third and final event on Sept. 5 will focus on the aesthetics of Islamic heritage with calligraphy, arabesques and more.

“Discussions about migration are intermingled with claims about its alleged alienation. Muslims are supposed to be completely different from 'us',” writes the museum in its announcement.

According to the exhibition organizers, however, there are countless traces of Muslim presence in the city in the Wien Museum's collection.

“They shed new light on the relationship between Islam and Vienna,” the museum said.

When asked by Anadolu, art historian Zeinab Abbas-Metwally-Abdelhamed, who is leading the Summer Academy together with Lukas Sperlich, said that the Wien Museum owns Ottoman objects from the 17th to 19th centuries.

“It is not actually known how the objects first came to the Burgerliches Zeughaus and later to the museum,” Abdelhamed said.

According to the art historian, they could also have been “trade goods and gifts. In this case, the objects would have much more to do with diplomatic and economic relations and the fascination of the 'Orient' than with the war.”

“Among the Ottoman objects are mainly weapons such as bows, sabers, rifles, spears, shields, etc., but also everyday objects such as lanterns or incense burners,” Abdelhamed added.

According to the art historian, the most valuable object in the museum is an Ottoman map of the Second Ottoman Siege of 1683.

There are comparable objects in other collections, but Abdelhamed continued: “This object is truly unique.”

According to the art historian, interest in the Summer Academy is “huge.”

“A large number of people have registered. In addition, our unique Islamic heritage tour attracted considerable interest and participation,” Abdelhamed told Anadolu.