The Veil of Knowledge
Oum al Banine / Mother of the Children
— honorific title given to Fatima al-Fihri
We created this piece, number 20 in our series, in response to the 2014 abduction and continued disappearance of over 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria. Because Fatima al-Fihri was born over 1200 years ago, we were unable to find a direct quote. Instead, we repeated her honorific title, “Mother of the Children,” throughout the piece—in the manner of a mantra, or the tradition of repeating phrases from the Qur’an throughout a mosque. Fatima founded al-Qarawiyyin University and Mosque in Fes, Morocco—the world’s oldest university still in operation. With this broadside, we hope to remind the world of Fatima’s work, faith and dedication—and of Islam’s long history of valuing education, innovation and knowledge.
You can learn more about this piece on our blog.
Year created
2014
At issue
The right and necessity for every girl and woman to receive an education
Edition size
125.4 prints
Significance of edition number
This number is the solution to an equation we devised out of numbers that are highly symbolic in Islam. Arabic culture is credited with the invention of algebra—a term derived from an Arabic word meaning “the reunion of broken parts.” We arrived at the number by multiplying 66 (the number that represents Allah in Islamic numerology) by 19 (considered by some mystics to be the “Key to the Qur’an”), and then dividing the result by 10 (ten-pointed stars are common elements in Arabesque patterning, as well as our broadside design). The “.4” in our edition number represents four artist proofs that exist outside the numbered edition, and set aside as gifts for four important women in our lives—mirroring the four “Women of the First Rank in Islam.”
Donation
To stress the importance of education as the best defense against extremism, we donated a portion of our proceeds to Girl Up, a United Nations Foundation campaign that supports girls’ and women’s education worldwide.