White Flag

Description:	lithograph. Edition of 7. When I was in my twenties, I lived in Sudan for two years teaching, travelling and working with refugee welfare agencies. I was always struck by the desolate sight of Sudanese cemeteries. They are dusty, open fields of graves with indistinct markers - sometimes with a carved stone, sometimes just a rock. There would often be ragged white flags flying from rough sticks in the ground grouped around some graves. The image has become imbedded in my memory of Sudan, and came immediately to my mind in connection with Al Mutanabbi. I have used this image as a mark of respect to the book sellers and also to all of those Muslims who have died as a result of Western interventions in the Middle East. The Umayyad dynasty (661–750) used white as a symbolic reminder of Muhammads first battle at Badr and their colour of mourning, to distinguish themselves from the black of the Abbasids. The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad
Created By:	Ripley, Simon
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Publisher:	(Devon, UK)
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/1404
Collection:	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	artists book art bookworks prints

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