Spirit & Life an exhibition of rare Islamic art and manuscripts never
before displayed in the UK, will run this summer at The Ismaili Centre from
14 July until 31 August 2007.
Highlights include miniatures from one of the
finest illustrated manuscripts ever produced, the Persian epic Shahnama (The
Book of Kings) and an extremely rare copy of the Canon of Medicine of Ibn
Sina, used in Europe and the Middle East as the standard medical textbook
for over 500 years.
Organised by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 'Spirit &
Life' will present treasures from the permanent collection of the Aga Khan
Museum, which will open in Toronto, Canada, in 2010. The museum is an
initiative of His Highness the Aga Khan, Spiritual Leader of the Shia Imami
Ismaili Muslims, who intends the museum to be a centre of education and
learning dedicated to the presentation of Muslim arts and culture in all
their historic, cultural and geographical diversity.
The London exhibition will display over 165 objects from the collection showing the diversity ofartistic traditions in the Muslim world.
Textiles, exquisite miniatures, rare manuscripts, ceramics, precious pages from the Qur'an, scientific medical texts, books of fables, and tiles and musical instruments will be shown alongside some of the finest portraits of Ottoman sultans and Qajar
shahs of the 19th century.
The exhibition covers a geographical area stretching from India in the East to Morocco in the West and spans over a thousand years from the ninth to the 19th century. A revised version of 'Spirit & Life' will visit the Louvre, Paris, between October 2007 and January 2008. The London exhibition will visit the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, between mid-February 2008 and April 2008.
Part of an international family of Ismaili Centres, The Ismaili Centre in
London was the first religious, social and cultural space specially designed
and built for the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim community in the West.
By its presence and the function it fulfils, the Centre represents a vision of
Islam as a thinking and spiritual faith. Like its counterparts in
Vancouver, Canada and Lisbon, Portugal, The Ismaili Centre in London fosters
friendship, understanding and dialogue through its various activities.
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