Teak Column of al-Qalis, Mecca (6th Century)
EMPIRE LINES30 Joulu 2021

Teak Column of al-Qalis, Mecca (6th Century)

Dr. Lily Filson reroutes religious loot through the 6th and 8th centuries, via the Teak Column of al-Qalis, produced in Yemen, and plundered for Saudi Arabia.

A tall wooden column towers over pilgrims to the heart of the Islamic faith in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Installed around the 8th century as Islamic pious plunder, it is one the last surviving remnants of the Christian church al-Qalis, erected in Sana’a, Yemen over a century beforehand. Revealing unique religious motifs, mosaics, and materials from Yemen, Ethiopia, and Egypt, it stands as a silent witness to centuries of conquest and cultural exchange between the Christian Byzantine and Aksumite, and emergent Islamic empires. But as Saudi Arabia's campaign of aerial bombardment continues to destroy Yemen today, its tales of tolerance make a loud call to rescue the region and its historical records, before they are forever lost.

PRESENTER: Dr. Lily Filson, Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

ART: Teak Column of al-Qalis, Mecca (6th Century).

IMAGE: ‘Teak Column'.

SOUNDS: Traditional Music Channel.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.


Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936

Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(175)

Electricity, Asad Raza (2026) (EMPIRE LINES x E-WERK Luckenwalde)

Electricity, Asad Raza (2026) (EMPIRE LINES x E-WERK Luckenwalde)

Contemporary artist Asad Raza performs within the industrial infrastructures and ecologies of East Germany, conducting the development of electricity from Ancient Greece through the German Democratic ...

12 Syys 18min

Pasqyra e Lëndës (Sommarium), Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj (2025-Now) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Summit Photo 2026)

Pasqyra e Lëndës (Sommarium), Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj (2025-Now) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Summit Photo 2026)

In this special episode, contemporary artist Erdiola Kanda Mustafaj joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss memory, displacement and the politics of image-making in Albania and the Western Balkans, throug...

27 Elo 40min

Tomorrow, again, Mona Benyamin (2023) (EMPIRE LINES x Triangle-Astérides, Jaou Tunis 2026)

Tomorrow, again, Mona Benyamin (2023) (EMPIRE LINES x Triangle-Astérides, Jaou Tunis 2026)

Curator and translator Line Ajan observes time, and humour as an aesthetic, political, and coping strategy in Palestinian collective experiences, reviewing the traumas of the Nakba and Israeli settler...

13 Elo 25min

ZED LOVE, Libita Sibungu (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange)

ZED LOVE, Libita Sibungu (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange)

In this special episode, contemporary artist Libita Sibungu joins EMPIRE LINES live, to explore the layers, energies, and geologies that connect people to place, and African diasporic, mixed and multi...

30 Heinä 58min

A Cutting: Songs of the Water, Kaajal Modi (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at the Eden Project, Cornwall, If Trees Could Talk 2026)

A Cutting: Songs of the Water, Kaajal Modi (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at the Eden Project, Cornwall, If Trees Could Talk 2026)

Find out more about Kaajal Modi’s collaborative work with audio, oral storytelling, and cultural preservation, through ⁠⁠Arts of Noticing⁠⁠, an independent symposium in Leeds, as part of If Trees Coul...

16 Heinä 3min

The Deployment of Art, Clare Carolin (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at King’s College London)

The Deployment of Art, Clare Carolin (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at King’s College London)

In this special episode, author and contemporary art historian Clare Carolin joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss the British government’s deployment of art as an instrument of war in the North of Irel...

2 Heinä 52min

Elevation (Chiltan), Suleman Aqeel Khilji (2025-2026) (EMPIRE LINES x White Cube Paris)

Elevation (Chiltan), Suleman Aqeel Khilji (2025-2026) (EMPIRE LINES x White Cube Paris)

Contemporary artist Suleman Aqeel Khilji recollects the landscapes of Balochistan, a mountainous region spanning present-stay Pakistan and Iran, and the influence of Urdu language and literatures on h...

18 Kesä 16min

The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026)

The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026)

Researcher, artist, and curator Pietro Consolandi traces the ‘wetland turn’ in art, ecology, and environmental justice, via Giovanni Pellegrini’s 2025 documentary film, The Venice Lagoon, a legal pers...

4 Kesä 21min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
i-dont-like-mondays
hupiklubi
uutiscast
sita
download
antin-palautepalvelu
poks
seitseman
vallattomat
kaksi-aitia
mamma-mia
rss-murhan-anatomia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
aikalisa
rss-sami-jorma