Hay Ibn Yakzan (The Gazelle Boy)

The following two works from the Collection of the Metwally & Kenawy Family were acquired by the writer Touraya Metwally who started an elite group ‘Al Fikr w Al Fann’ with her brother Dr. Hisham al-Metwally and Dr. Rafik al-Sabban along with other artists and writers in Damascus during the 1960s. Among the group were Louay Kayyali, Fateh Moudarres, Ghada Al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani, Elfat al-Idlibi and Rafiq al-Sabban.


One of the pioneers of modern art in Syria, Naim Ismail fuses both traditional aspects of his native Syria with depictions of daily life and abstract geometric motifs. The present work is a fine example of one of his genre scenes rendered with representational forms. The story of The Gazelle Boy (Hayy Ibn Yaqzan) is one of the most famous philosophical stories written by the famous Islamic philosopher Ibn Ṭufail in the early 12th century in Al-Andalus. This book discusses philosophically the relation between God, nature and humanity, centered on a a boy who was born on a deserted island and raised by animals. The novel was not only a major inspiration in the Islamic philosophy but also for Enlightenment theorists. 'Hayy Ibn Yaqzan' is the third most translated book from Arabic to all languages after Qur'an and One Thousand and One Nights.

The artist Naim Ismail, an exiled Arab from the tender age of seven, hailed from Syrian Antioch before it was annexed by Turkey. He was eventually forced to head to Damascus and was unable to return to the home he yearned for. After travelling to Rome to study art, he moved back to Damascus and became a prominent art teacher and journalist. After the death of his brother Adham, also an artist, Naim became deeply affected by the political instability in the Middle East and the freedom of his country was for him paramount. Ismail was a prolific painter, who rendered a perspective employing traditional Arab decorative designs fused with surreal, dreamlike elements to achieve a style of modern art that is distinctly his own.