Tehran, 9 July 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) – An exhibition of unseen masterpieces of Islamic art from Aga Khan Museum collection under the name of Spirit and Life, will go on display for the first time in Britain at the Ismaili Center in London from July 14 to August 31.

 

Spirit and Life Exhibition will include miniatures from one of the finest illustrated manuscripts ever produced, the Persian epic masterpiece of Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), and an extremely rare copy of the Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sina also known as Avicenna, Persian physician, astronomer, logician, mathematician, philosopher, physicist, scientist, and theologian, whose book use in Europe and the Middle East as the standard medical textbook for over 500 years.

 

Organized by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Spirit and Life will present treasures from the permanent collection of the Aga Khan Museum, which is going to be opened in Toronto, Canada in 2010.

 

The Aga Khan Museum will offer unique insights and new perspectives into Muslim civilizations. “This exhibition of artistic masterpieces form the Islamic world underlines that the arts, particularly when they are spiritually inspired, can become a medium of discourse that transcends the barriers of our day-to-day experiences and preoccupations,” said His Highness the Aga Khan.

 

Over 165 objects from the collection showing the diversity of artistic traditions in the Muslim world will go on display in Sprit and Art exhibition. Textiles, exquisite miniatures, rare manuscripts, ceramics, precious pages for the holy Qoran, scientific medical texts, books of fables, and tiles and musical instruments will be shown alongside some of the finest portraits of Ottoman sultans in Turkey and Qajar kings in Iran during the 19^th century will be displayed in London’s exhibition.

 

“The political crises of the last few years, and the large numbers of Muslims emigrating to the West, have revealed often dramatically the considerable lack of knowledge of the Muslim world in many western societies,” said Luis Monreal, General Manager of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC).   

 

An 11^th century bird incense burner, a late 10^th or early 11^th century Egyptian luster jar, an apothecary jar used in Syria during the 14^th century for medicaments, a slip-decorated pottery dish decorated with geometry and calligraphy produced during the 10^th century in eastern part of Iran, three folios written by Nasin al-din Tusi, Persian philosopher about ethics, social justice and politics, and one of the most luxurious and unique examples of a complete robe belonging to the Mongol period, would be among the other masterpieces which will be displayed in the exhibition.

Spirit and Life will be divided into two sections including: The Word of God, and The Power of the Sovereign.

 

A revised version of Spirit and Life will be also exhibited in Louver Museum in Paris between October 2007 and January 2008.

 

Spirit and Life will be inaugurated on 14^th of July at the Ismaili Center located in 1 Cromwell Gardens, London SW7 and will run to 31^st of August. The exhibition is free for public.

 

For further information refer to the website of the exhibition at: www.spritandlife2007.org  

 

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