605c

Is it the crown that makes the king?

605b

And now all frogs are praising him! Can't you hear the croaky singing? That is a poem for the Frogs' King...

605a

Can you believe it?!? The Frogmouth Owl (Batrachostomus) stole my crown!?!

Frog Walking a Dogfish

A Stolen Crown!

Add your Colours to the Froggies!

604d

Ya Princess... Sufis work faster than you think they do!

604c

The moment is infinite!
Time is elastic!!
Shaykh is always right!!!

604b

You Frogmouth Owl preaching! How ugly is this translation!! Al-Waqt (الوقت‎) is "The Time" NOT "The Moment"!!! Too short is a moment to do any good...

604a

Rumi says: "The Sufi is the child of the moment, o kind friend" (Sufi ibn al-Waqt bashad, ay rafiq).

Thoughts under the Stars

I think... Should we buy a Sailing boat?
Yes, may be... Sailing boats are Greener...

Wind is cheaper!
And funnier!!
Hu Hu Ha!!!

Microtones and Microcones

This is the sixth (and last) of a series of six drawings I made between 2005 and 2006, inspired by the group Sufis Without Borders.
Ink on tracing paper, 30x30 cm/12"x12".

Celebration Dance

The elephant in image b comes from the Padshah-nama (c. 1640-5) while the background of the same image is in folio 378a of the BL Babur-nama;

Image c is also kept at the British Library (BL) and represents *Sufis in Ecstasy*;

Image d contains a spade of the kind worn by Emperor Aurangzeb and intricacies from a jali (perforated wall) in the Jami Masjid at Ahmedabad, India.

Should you thirst for more images from Mughal India, along with an excellent text and at a very reasonable price, turn to Valerie Berinstain: THIS is the book for you (the original is in French).

Add your colours to the Froggies!

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

The Frogs Without Borders wish you a Happy Thanksgiving full of Gratitude and Remembrance of God.

603d

Your love teaches the warrior
how to handle her spade
your love keeps her drunk
at your gate!

603c

Oh! You who opened her eye
to the beauty of the sea
you who lent her the key
of Paradise...

603b

Who gave fruits and fish
to this lonely darvish
to this heart
that was wandering wild...

603a

Oh! Let me sing
a song for the King
for the Owner
of the Tavern of Ruin...

Frog Planting a Crocus

Crocus!

A Tap on the Heart

This is the fifth of a series of six drawings I made between 2005 and 2006, inspired by the group Sufis Without Borders.
Ink on tracing paper, 30x30 cm/12"x12".

Flowers of Love

The frog and the bird (images a and b) come from the Babur-nama kept at the British Library.

Image c represents Jahangir contemplating the portrait of his father Akbar. The original, painted c. 1614 by Nadir az-Zaman, is in Paris, Musée Guimet. A very good article about *The Imperial Image* by B.N.Goswamy can be read here.

Image d comes from a hanging of cotton and silk, c. 1650-1700, kept at V&A Museum, London, U.K.

Enjoy Colouring the Froggies!

602d

Consciousness and the many poems that spring out of me!

602c

Consciousness is what I get out of love. Consciousness...

602b

But... What do you get out of Desert's Love?!?

602a

Love is made of luscious gardens as well as of barren deserts...

Frog & Zebra Reading Jack London

Friggitoria Giorgia (Fish and Chips Georgia)

This is the fourth of a series of six drawings I made between 2005 and 2006, inspired by the group Sufis Without Borders.
Ink on tracing paper, 30x30 cm/12"x12".

Frogs Are Frogs

These images are inspired by four Indian miniatures of the Mughal Era (1656-1857).

The first image (upper left) represents Prince Selim, the future Emperor Jahangir, on his throne.
Painted by Mansur and Manohar, 1605 ca., it is kept at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The second, third and fourth images are inspired by miniatures of the Vaqi'at-i Baburi (Babur-nama), translated into Persian and illustrated around 1590 under the reign of Akbar. They are kept at the British Library.

Enjoy Colouring the Froggies!

601d

Frogs are frogs... They can't learn love if they don't jump beyond!

601c

So why did she quit her to go with him? And why did she quit him and joined the howling zebras?!?

601b

And before him, the Shaykha, she loved her so...

601a

She loved the Shaykh of a new kind of love...

600th Strip's Staff Party

Candy Shop

This is the third of a series of six drawings I made between 2005 and 2006, inspired by the group Sufis Without Borders.
Ink on tracing paper, 30x30 cm/12"x12".

Wadkhulee Jannatee 89:30(Welcome to My Garden)

Enjoy Colouring the Froggies!

600d

From its rotten roots the frogs carve a pond!

600c

Our garden's old tree will be cut tomorrow...

600b

How many roses are ready to bloom...
The rain fills the heart of the sweet nightingale...

600a

This image is inspired by a garden described in the *Baburnama* (Book of Babur or Memoirs of Babur) and illustrated by the artists active at the Mughal Court at the time of Emperor Akbar.

The name of the place where Babur is having the garden built is *Khodja Seyaran spring* ("Spring of the Three Friends of God") and is located in the vicinity of Kabul.

The original manuscript (of which I have a copy bought in Kabul year 1975) is kept in the British Library (Or. 3714) with two miniatures referring to this particular garden (ff. 180b, 181b).

Fana-fi-Shakespeare

The first stage of Fana happens through one's Shaykh.

Active Learners Learn More

This is the second of a series of six drawings I made between 2005 and 2006, inspired by the group Sufis Without Borders.
Ink on tracing paper, 30x30 cm/12"x12".

Frog-O'-Lantern

A Question Lingers...

Enjoy Colouring the Froggies!

599d

Are we Impious (as Rumi says) or Hypocrites (as per Hafez)?

The verse by Rumi (on the left side) says: "Become drunk with Love, for Love is all that exists".

The verse by Hafez (right side) says: "Ecstasy is unknown to the Sufi, because of his pride".

599c

And yet the question lingers upon my heart...

599b

This image is also inspired by the exhibition *Sehnsucht Persien* at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich. The artist, Mir Afzal al-Hoseyni, was active in Isfahan around 1640.

Al-Hoseyni was probably inspired by Antonio Raimondi's Cleopatra, a copper engraving made in Rome around 1515-1527. You can see both images on the upper left side of the pdf flyer: just click here!

599a

The image above is inspired by the painting "Junge Frau in georgischer Tracht" (Young woman in Georgian costume) which is the highlight of the exhibition "Sehnsucht Persien" (The Fascination of Persia) held at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland.

If you enjoyed the novel *My Name Is Red* by Orhan Pamuk, you will find yourself visually delving into the artistic debate described in that story.

Also, another exhibition at the Museum Rietberg is worth visiting: *Yaks, Yetis, Yogis: Tibet in Comics*.

Although apparently unrelated to the former, besides being highly enjoyable, Yaks, Yetis, Yogis develops -using a different approach and medium- the same concept of meeting the "Otherness", i.e. that mix of attraction and suspicion which is aroused within us through the encounter with another culture.