Card

@card

I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

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Worship heard openly, in a tongue the street did not speak.

A Voice in the Air

Worship heard openly, in a tongue the street did not speak.

Card 6 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

Out of one rooftop in a crowded skyline of Dutch gables, white and cream birds rise into a deep cobalt evening sky, a thin line at first, then a wide flock. In 1985, at the opening of Leiden's first Turkish mosque on the Hooigracht, the adhan sounded openly, by the account of the city's Turkish community for the first time in the Netherlands and in Western Europe 1. Not painted, but the same open worship in another tongue: in the Walloon Church services are still held in French, with the organ of 1746, four hundred and fifty years after the first refugees began worshipping in this city 2.

What it draws on · 2

First Turkish Mosque & ISN Mimar Sinan Mosque

de azan

At that opening in 1985 the adhan sounded openly on the Hooigracht — by the account of Leiden's own Turkish community, for the first time in the Netherlands and in Western Europe. That Leiden was early is not in doubt: the religious-studies scholar Pooyan Tamimi Arab names Leiden among the first Dutch cities where the call to prayer could be heard.

Sources · 2
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl (basis bevestigd door een historicus)
  • Pooyan Tamimi Arab, geciteerd in NOS — 'Amsterdamse moskee begint met versterkte gebedsoproep, maar is zeker niet de eerste' (2019)
Walloon Church

nog altijd Frans

In the eighteenth century the Walloon congregation shrank so far that the chapel fell out of use. But when the Vrouwekerk was demolished early in the nineteenth century, the chapel came back into use as the Walloon church, and so it remains. French-language services are still held here, accompanied by the organ of 1746 — four hundred and fifty years after the first refugees began worshipping in this city.

Sources · 1
  • Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Waalse kerk (Leiden): achteruitgang in de achttiende eeuw, hergebruik na sloop van de Vrouwekerk, Franstalige diensten en orgel uit 1746

Shares its places with · 6

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

I'd love to know that someone came by — as a number, never a name. May I count your visit? And if an ad brought you here, may I tell that ad it worked?