Historic Quran Show to Open in US Capital
The exhibition in Washington, DC, will bring together more than 50 sacred texts from the Arab Middle East, Iran, Turkey and North Africa.
It will feature major loans from the unparalleled collections of Istanbul’s Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, after an impasse on loans to other exhibitions in the US and Europe over restitution claims, The Art newspaper reported.
The loans from Turkey include parchment Quran folios dating back to the eighth century, some of the earliest known parts of the Quran in existence and extraordinary examples of calligraphy illuminated in gold ink.
The exhibition is due to open in mid-October, weeks before the US presidential election.
During the campaign inflammatory comments about Muslims by the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, made headlines around the world.
The gallery’s director, Julian Raby, says: "It will give American audiences the chance to appreciate the reverence and artistic skill that went into the production of some of the most beautiful known examples of the art of the Quran. Visitors will also learn about the many different people who copied, commissioned and collected these works.”
According to a statement from the gallery, the exhibition traces the history of the Quran over 900 years, from eighth-century Damascus through "the flowering of the art of the book across the Muslim world” to elaborate 16th- and 17th-century Ottoman-era Qurans.
The exhibition will also include mosque furnishings, from a Mamluk lamp to Quran boxes and stands made of ivory and mother of pearl.
The catalogue will be edited by Massumeh Farhad, the chief curator of Islamic art at the Freer-Sackler. One expert predicted a "glorious and glitzy show, with lots of colour and pattern and gold”.
