Shah and Tell At the British Museum (Again)

Today, Meredith and Olivia gamely braved a sixth visit to the British Museum to accompany Mom to the Shah 'Abbas exhibit. He was the 17th century (1587-1629) ruler of Iran, who took a poor and threatened (by the Ottoman empire) country and turned it into a formidable Middle Eastern power that expanded its borders, took over control of its own silk trade and built some of the most beautiful and impressive buildings in the Islamic world. We learned that he was a study in contrasts--a pious Muslim who drank wine; a humble man who freely mixed with peasants but who killed his own sons out of fear that one might try to overthrow him (as he overthrew his father); the descendent of an Islamic sufi order who killed many of its leaders for fear they were becoming too powerful. It was interesting to see so many items that have never before been outside of Iran (lamps, carpets, Qurans) and I kept thinking about the fact that such an exhibit probably wouldn't be possible in the United States because of obvious political tensions. That made it all the more ironic that the exhibit curator is an American woman -- Sheila Canby! I wonder what Shah 'Abbas -- or the many wives in his harem -- would have thought about that?