IT and Museums: State Museum of Oriental Art launched an electronic library of books “Moscow Qurans”

The State Museum of Oriental Art has launched an electronic library of books Moscow Qurans.

The new virtual project is dedicated to Qurans. Visitors to the website have an opportunity to learn about the origin of the Quranic text, its meaning, history and the origin of the manuscripts of the Quran, as well as about the artistic features of the lists, handwritings and traditions in which they were made.

The creators of the project have collected unique lists of the Holy Book of Muslims, dated from the X–XIX c. from various collections – of the State Museum of Oriental Art, the Mardjani Foundation, the Russian State Library, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, the MGIMO Research Library, the Archive of the RAS, the Lomonosov MSU Research Library, the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature. Put together, they tell about the development of the art of writing the Quran for almost a thousand years in a vast area of the globe – from the Maghreb to Kashmir, from the Volga region to Iran, from India to Dagestan. According to the beliefs of Muslims, the Arabic book and the art of writing owe their appearance to divine intervention, thus being the embodiment of the Word of God and sacred art. The first Arabic book was the Quran, a divine revelation sent down to people through the Prophet Muhammad in the VII century A.D. – as the Islamic creed says. The techniques of the design of the Quranic text and its decoration were extremely diverse, but at the same time fundamentally the same for all corners of the Islamic world from antiquity to this day.

The electronic library will be regularly updated with new virtual editions. The project’s website also features video materials on the history, structure and design of Qurans.

From November 3 until December 18, 2022, the Museum of Oriental Art (Moscow) also hosts the exhibition of the same name – Moscow Qurans, where one can see firsthand 40 unique lists of the Holy Book of Muslims, dating back to the X–XIX c., from different collections.

The electronic library of the Museum of Oriental Art Moscow Qurans has been created with the support of the History of the Fatherland Foundation.