In 1969, the Al-Aqsa mosque (Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem was attacked by a fanatic. Over six websites I Googled, blamed the Israelis' who were indeed under suspicion at the time but the perpetrator was an Australian. . . a Christian cultist who plead insanity at his trial because "God" made him do it". In the blaze that followed, one of the world's most precious works of art, the minbar of Saladin, Salahuddin Al-Ayyoubi, originally installed in 1187, was destroyed. The minbar lay in ashes.

This afternoon after a day of chores and 'working' for Clare, I watched an hour of the Arts on Sunday show on ABC.

There was one small problem after the bombing. Since the industrial revolution, the middle east has been flooded with our ready-made furnishings to the point that the craftsmen who knew how to put these things together have all but disappeared. The guilds have dissolved and many of the ancient trades and knowledge lost. After all, this was a 12th Century stairway to heaven. The program was about the reconstruction of this amazing thing. It was a wooden stairwell upon which the Imam climbed to preach prayers. Ornate beyond belief in truly Saladinian manner and not a nail to be seen. The whole staircase and pulpit were pieces of an incredible geometric and astrological wooden puzzle which fitted together to support it's own weight, astoundingly ornate but a puzzle that remained unsolved until a Bedouin Jordanian Engineer looked carefully.

This Pulpit, considered one of the most beautiful in the World, was made of over 10,000 interlocking pieces of Cedar and other wood, Ivory and mother of pearl affixed without a drop of glue or a single nail. The young Jordanian engineer, entered a competition, no actually entered two competitions to solve the puzzle because the Jordanians didn't believe him in the first instance. He won both and was commissioned to draw the designs for the new Minba.

I was blown away by this little program. The staircase was rebuilt by craftsmen, many trained by the English Prince of Wales charities would you believe. They cut out the thousands of geometrically perfect pieces, carved intricate designs, assembled a giant 3D jigsaw and eventually shipped it back from Jordan to Jerusalem through some of the most troublesome country in the world. Lebanon donated not Ceder but Walnut, the Prince of Wales "School for Traditional Arts" donated expertise and Mathematician Professor Keith, the Jordanian King donated money, and local craftsmen rebuilt it as a sign of their faith. Since Jordan is still a custodian of Jerusalem, the Jordanian King opened its final installation

I learned a lot from this little program about the intellecutalism and faith of Islam . .the real Islam, not what we receive by way of Tabloid news.

All through this lovely and artistic documentary, I was thinking, "What a shame that we think of our middle eastern counterparts as terrorists, anti-feminists (yes there were women working on the project), uncivilised, uneducated, argumentative" . . to me it's like branding all of us in the west as Davidians or Jonesians. It was truly refreshing to see a documentary portraying the middle east as courageous, determined, articulate, gentle, artistic and committed.

Most of all, the cooperation between east and west to get this project up and running was palpable. If only we could do this on the political stage. Let us not tar each other with the same brush. The squeaky wheel gets the most attention but does not necssarily represent the majority. If a thing of such age and beauty can be rebuilt piece by tiny piece through international cooperation, why is world peace such a challenge?

For the purists



For the . .'fucked if I knows' . .but all the paintings are his, sadly, few Aussies even know who he is . .I lovez the Rofster!