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Sketches from an Antique Shop Arab Candlestick Sand, sand everywhere around - the desert - the filled emptiness and a caravan finding it hard to move through it. The Bedouins in their large caftans and turbans tied over their faces so only their penetrating eyes gazing into the glowing light can be seen. They rock on their camels at a constant slow rhythm. Once every year they leave their desert dwellings and head for the big city, where they hope to sell their ceramic pots made on simple potter's wheels. This is the time of their prayer, the grandeur of the mosque fills them with apprehension and respect. This is where they spend the entire day from the early morning till sundown. Everyone is drawn into their prayers with the Koran in front of them. They read it by a dim light offered by a candlestick made in a manner that ensures that not even a single drop of wax falls on the holly book. The flame throws light on the arabesque forms with citations from the Koran, the book that gives them wisdom that guides them through their lives. These simple people from the desert respect every moment they can spend in the immensely powerful mosque decorated with artistic mosaics and valuable carpets. They are used to the lonely silence of the dunes, thus the silence of a common prayer offers them a refuge. When dusk settles down they leave this holy place to return to the timelessness of the desert, which calls them by whispering the verses of an Arab lyricist: "I am the endless sea and all the worlds are but a grain of sand on my shore." Karin Košak |
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