Islamic history lessons delivered to your home
By Antariksawan Jusuf
Islam: Empire of Faith
Nov. 20 - Nov. 26
5:30 p.m.
SCTV
JAKARTA (JP): "Islamic humanity is one of the grandest human achievements ... For the West, much of the history of Islam has been obscured behind the veil of fear and misunderstanding. Yet, Islam's hidden history was deeply and surprisingly interwoven with western civilization."
This short narration, by British actor Ben Kingsley, introduces the strong message that pervades Islam: Empire of Faith, a documentary on the faith that almost a quarter of the world's people practice.
The documentary is to be broadcast daily for six days before the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan on Nov. 27. The station has split the original three 60-minute shows, which were scheduled to air in the United States on PBS in the fall of this year, into six 30-minute episodes.
Produced and directed by Emmy award-winning director Rob Gardner, each episode of the documentary respectively tells about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the awakening of the religion and the Ottomans, the nomadic tribe from present-day Turkey who built a vast Islamic empire in the 16th century, covering three continents and greater than the Roman empire.
Kingsley narrates that while Europe languished in the Dark Ages, Muslim scholars reclaimed the ancient wisdom of the Greeks. They were the ones who sowed the seeds of the Renaissance 600 years before the birth of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Traces of the glory of Islamic civilization can be found today, such as in the way we heal the sick (the concept of the hospital was first introduced in Baghdad) to the numerals we use for counting. Other legacies of the Islamic empire include such great palaces as Alhambra in Spain and buildings in Turkey and Jerusalem.
Using accounts from several American and British scholars and Islamic historians, the program provides insight into the history of Islam without much prejudice or cynicism.
Its strongest distinction from other programs on Islam screened on Indonesian television stations, such as The Trace of Prophets from Malaysia's TV3 and Makkah & Madinah, are the striking pictures and postcard-like scenes presented almost throughout. Gardner has brought an approach to the documentary that makes this history lesson enjoyable and entertaining.
According to RealScreen magazine, Gardner spent 45 days shooting in Iran as well as various other locales in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Spain, Israel and Turkey. Gardner, who produced the film for the Devillier Donegan Enterprises, was reportedly the first American filmmaker allowed to work in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Islam: Empire of Faith is one of the high-budget projects of Devillier Donegan Enterprises on Empires, a collection of seven series which explore the essence of a particular empire. Other subjects in the collection are The Roman Empire, Napoleon, Egypt, The British Empire, The Kingdom of David and The Greeks. The budget of each series was allocated at between US$550,000 to $775,000 per hour-long episode.
There are a number of lessons to be learned from the program, especially for Indonesian viewers who find their country locked in constant strife. For example, the Prophet Muhammad and other Muslim leaders, with the exception of Egyptian ruler Al Hakim, provided protection to Christians and Jews.
One of the sources of the film, John Renard of St. Louis University, confirmed the misconceptions about Islamic leaders of the past.
"They didn't rule with a heavy hand. They allowed Christians and the Jewish community to maintain their religious structure," he said.
Christians and Muslims even used the same site for their religious gatherings. "At St. John the Baptist in Damascus, side by side the two faiths shared the same building in peace."
However, Gardner should have explored what happened to Islam after the death of the last Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. There also needed to be more stories on the development of Islamic civilization in China, India and in particular Indonesia, home to 220 million people of whom 80 percent officially hold the Islamic faith.