This piece was first published in Shawati’ Issue 61

Installation view of Sacred Words, Timeless Calligraphy. © Neville Hopwood

The Taskhent Qur’an – also known as the Samarkand Kufic Qur’an is one of the oldest surviving Qur’an manuscripts in existence. The large lettering, where only a few words populate an entire page, is written in an early version of the kufic script and dates back to the eighth century. About one third of the original manuscript is housed in the Hast-Imam Library in Tashkent, Uzbekistan but one page, in immaculate condition is currently on show at the Museum of Islamic Civilisation in Sharjah. It is a key part of Sacred Words, Timeless Calligraphy: Highlights of Exceptional Calligraphy from the Hamid Jafar Qur’an Collection displaying some of the world’s finest examples of Qur’an manuscripts and Islamic calligraphy owned by Hamid Jafar. Jafar is the founder and chairman of Sharjah-based Crescent Group of companies and he began collecting the rare manuscripts more than 40 years ago.

Installation view of Sacred Words, Timeless Calligraphy, October 2022. © Tala Gharagozlou.

However, these spectacular pieces spanning 14 centuries of Islamic civilisation from China to North Africa have never been seen in public before, so this is a special moment in the collection’s history. Also on show is a bi-folio from what is known as the Blue Qur’an, a manuscript that is among the most famous works of Islamic calligraphy and is notable for its gold lettering on a rare indigocoloured parchment. Likely to have been produced in the late ninth to mid tenth-century in Tunisia, the age and delicacy of this particular specimen is such that the curator at the museum believes it to be of one of only three others in the world.

“Every piece in this exhibition is of the highest quality,” says Entisar Al Obaidly, the museum’s curator. “Through the medium of the Qur’an, we can walk through the pages of history. We can learn how the Islamic world developed and the flourishing of art practice over the centuries.”

The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first section is dedicated to single pages and shows the beginning of the emergence of illumination. The second section covers the global expansion of Islam by showcasing unusual pieces from different parts of the world such as the Maghreb [North Africa]; Andalusia [Southern Europe] and parts of Africa and China. It also shows the development of calligraphy and the sophistication of illumination; the meeting of culture and artists. The third section is a showcase of books supported by royal patrons. Here we see the art of the books becoming much more sophisticated as the centuries progress.

Manuscript image on display, Sacred Words, Timeless Calligraphy at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, October 2022. © Tala Gharagozlou.

Alongside the manuscripts, the exhibition also includes a painting and a rug from the Hamid Jafar Collection as well as a sound installation of Quranic recitation hanging above the rug, to simulate the spiritual process of prayer.

“The exhibition marks our dedication to fostering an appreciation of Islamic art and its significance throughout various Islamic eras,” said Manal Ataya, Director General, of Sharjah Museums Authority in her written foreword for the exhibition catalogue. “Unlike other Qur’an collections, this exhibition displays Islamic art pieces collected by Hamid Jafar, who has a deep appreciation of Arabic calligraphy. The exhibition offers visitors deep insights into the evolution of Arabic calligraphy that did not only serve to copy Qur’an manuscripts but to also highlight its sacred and divine message, and until today continues to play a central role in art and expression in the Arab World and across the globe,” she said.

Ataya also highlighted the one piece in the exhibition that was written by a female scribe, Sharifah Wahidah Yaqutah, dated 1844 CE. It is true that although the art of calligraphy was male-dominated, there were many female scribes as well as female patrons of the arts and this exhibition highlights that.

The collection began with a vision of presenting Islam’s influence as a unifying force and a source of inspiration in disparate cultures and locations from the Near East to China, South East Asia to Spain and the Maghrib. Jafar said that the collection reveals the world of high art expressed in script and illumination. The diverse styles of calligraphy and illumination in his collection, display each age and epoch.”

Manuscript images at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, October 2022. Sacred Words, Timeless Calligraphy. © Tala Gharagozlou.

“As I grew to appreciate the beauty of calligraphy and the talent that created it, I began adding to a small collection inherited from my late father, and begun in my early adulthood. Over 50 years, I have been fortunate to add numerous works spanning more than 1,000 years of Islamic civilisation tracing back to the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa and Asia. I am proud and honoured to be exhibiting this selection from my collection for the first time ever, doing so in my beloved Sharjah which I have taken as my home for over half a century, and to be sharing with the wider community the beauty of these remarkable works,” Mr Jafar said.

To give more insight into the collection for visitors, the museum have put together an educational progamme for adults and children to run throughout the five month event. Calligrapher Ali Al Hammadi will be giving hands-on workshops and there will be sessions on ornamentation for children aged between 13 and 17 as well as classes teaching adults about the art of illumination. Quranic ornamentations and gilding craft will be taught by artist Taghreed Al-Taei who will also explain how to work with Arabic lettering to create artworks. In addition to the education programme, the museum have also organised regular tours as well as a panel discussion moderated by the calligrapher Adnan Al Shreefi.

The exhibition, which will be running at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation until 19 March, 2023, also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Crescent Petroleum, the oil and gas company founded by Jafar in 1971.

Sacred Words: Timeless Calligraphy - A Celebration of Islamic Art Across the Ages