Major Quran Exhibition Planned in US
The Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery announced Tuesday that "The Art of the Quran: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts,” running Oct. 15-Feb. 20, 2017, will combine 48 manuscripts and folios from Istanbul’s Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts with manuscripts from the collection of the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art. They span nearly a millennium, dating from the late-seventh or early-eighth centuries to the 17th century.
This show, says Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Sackler and Freer and curator of Islamic art, is an opportunity to "focus on the importance of this [book] as a work of art and importance in art history.”
"The Arabic text of the Quran was fixed as early as the late-seventh century,” Farhad said, but the variety is "staggering.” The exhibition will showcase different styles of calligraphy and illumination.
Visitors will be able to compare different Qurans and "see the sweep of history in front of us,” said Sheila Blair, a professor of Islamic art history at Boston College and Virginia Commonwealth University. "It shows how diverse the Muslim world is.”
Commissioned by elites and created by artisans, these Qurans had second or third lives, noted in inscriptions that reflect the history they witnessed, said Simon Rettig, assistant curator of Islamic art.
One Quran completed in 1307 for the tomb of Mongol leader Uljaytu, in Soltaniyeh, Iran, was taken to Istanbul by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1531 and went to his relatives.
Originating in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Iraq, these books were among the valuable artworks the Ottoman state transferred to Istanbul in its waning days.
This exhibition is an opportunity for people to see these Qurans up close in the US and "reflect on their own assumptions,” Sackler and Freer director Julian Raby said. He calls it a "fitting complement” to a 2006 exhibition of Bibles before the year 1000.
Source: AP
