A Qatari artist guides Erdogan to the Dome of the Rock

Emad Mourad - Doha

After the Qatari artist Abdul Salam Al-Qadi left his talent in designing crystal models for years, he returned to the dome of the Dome of the Rock to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The 45-year-old judge is skilled at dealing with crystal, or the so-called art of kings, abandoned by many because of the high costs he requires. But the judge threw all of this behind his back and used his hopes to express the issues of his Arab and Islamic nation, To the State of Qatar on June 5, 2017 by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain as well as Egypt.

The judge built the mosque of Dome of the Rock - the largest of his works - using about 62 thousand crystal stones and 64 colors, and took three months of continuous work, and after the completion of this body Judge decided to give that stereotype to Erdogan, aware of his positions advocating the issues of the nation and his position of the blockade, Says the Qatari artist.

Meet Erdogan

The artist had great challenges in reaching the Turkish president to guide him in this respect. He went to the Turkish ambassador in Doha, Fakret Ozer, to present this matter. The days pass - and last April - if a friend who was aware of the judge's desire to hand over the object To Erdogan, phone him and tell him that Erdogan will receive him in Istanbul.

The judge immediately went to Istanbul to confirm that his goal would be realized. Indeed, the Qatari artist met with the Turkish president to offer him his thanks and express his sincere gratitude for his stand with Qatar and the issues of the nation.

In the opinion of the judge that the Palestinian issue was overshadowed by the issues of the Arab world in Yemen, Syria, Libya and others, so he wanted to give the case code symbols, the mosque Dome of the Rock to contribute to remind the nation of its central issue and Jerusalem eternal capital of Palestine.

Art and nation issues
According to the judge, Erdogan told him during the meeting his happiness with this gift, which reflects the interest of artists in the issues of their nation, and also told him the importance of every artist in this nation to volunteer his art to serve their just causes and express the oppressed in the world.

The Qatari artist considers this gift to be an indication of the feelings of all citizens of Qatar towards the Turkish government and people. He said that he used a crystal of less than two degrees of diamonds in the body and that his work in this body was done manually.

The judge is one of the most prominent artists in the field of "stitching the crystal," where he believes that the crystal painting, like other means of artistic expression, and prefer the judge to use hand tools in the completion of his paintings instead of using equipment such as a pistol and other new tools.

In contrast to the other works of art, according to the judge, the crystal is preserved for a long period of time and can not be scratched or broken in an indirect way, because crystal stones are similar in shape to diamond stones and remain in their first state for a long time.

Important figures

The dome of the Dome of the Rock mosque is the first work of the Qatari artist and has been preceded by many works during the past two years, including the design of a picture of the crystal of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani after the siege under the name of Tamim al-Nasr, In recognition of the role he plays in bridging the rift between the GCC countries.

Crystal is a type of glass known as soda glass and lead. It is a solid solid body, which may be natural like diamonds and sapphires, or artificially like sapphire and selenium. Its forms are geometrical and may be transparent, colored or sculpted, reflect the rays falling on it, Crystal based on the type of chemical bond between its molecules.