http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=225693
ews code:SPH - 16_MMS33.txt News date: Thursday, August 26,
2010
www.tehrantimes.com
Rare handwritten Quran showcased at Tehran museum
Tehran Times Art Desk
TEHRAN -- A collection of rare version of handwritten the Holy Quran has been
put on show in an exhibition opened at the Reza Abbasi Museum in Tehran on
Tuesday.
A number of Iranian cultural personalities attended the opening ceremony of the
exhibit entitled "The Eternal Blessing".
A version attributed to Imam Ali (AS) is the oldest Quran in the collection. It
is inscribed in Kufic style calligraphy on animal skin and has notes in Thulth
on its margins, which were written during the Qajar era.
The exhibition also displays an excerpt of the Holy Quran, which has been
written in Kufic on ten sheets of deerskin. It is believed that it was
inscribed by Imam Reza (AS).
The margins on each page contain calligraphy of verses from the Sura of
Ibrahim, penned by an artist from the Safavid era.
The information on the two versions has been confirmed by Iran's Quranic
Research Foundation according to what museum curator Sahba Kermani said in a
press conference.
Kermani believes that each one of the other 19 versions of the Quran on display
at the exhibition represents a unique art form.
The exhibit also explores the development of the Kufic and Thulth styles of
calligraphy from the 8th to the 19th century, he said.
The exhibition runs until the end of Ramadan.
Photo: A version of the Holy Quran, which is attributed to Imam Ali (AS), is on
display at the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum in Mashhad. (File photo)
