Khatt Islāmi, a one-room gallery and online exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, presented objects from diverse media and geographical origin across Islamic Africa from the mid-1800s to today. (Fig. 1) The sixteen items have broad appeal to African immigrants in Minnesota, practitioners of Islam, students, and the general public. Objects in the exhibition derive from nine African nations: Mali, Togo, Nigeria, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Somalia, Niger, and Algeria. They include wooden writing boards of various sizes, cloth wall hangings, metal blades, an amulet and pen cases, as well as a ceramic vase by contemporary Sufi artist Khaled Ben Slimane.
Africa is home to more than one-third of the world's Muslim population, and Minnesota is home to the largest Somalian immigrant community in the United States, among many other African immigrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Nigeria who call the Twin Cities home. The Minneapolis Institute of...