World culture: Exhibition of works of classic Muslim art of the IX-XIX centuries to be open in Moscow

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow) from February 20, 2013 holds an exhibition of works of classic Muslim art of the IX-XIX centuries from the collection of the “Marjari Fund” which stores the magnificent examples of Islamic art of different regions: Central Asia and the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Volga region, Asia Minor, and northern Afghanistan, China and East Turkestan, and the Arab world.

The exhibition will feature about 100 monuments of classic Muslim art, among which are unique monuments of early Islamic period – the list of the ancient Koran of the Abbasid era (the end of the IX century); rare samples of the early medieval pottery from Central Asia, Iran, Mesopotamia – cups with calligraphic inscriptions and figurative images.

One section of the exhibition sections will demonstrate the art of the Islamic court miniatures of the XIII-XVII centuries. This section will present the whole manuscripts and individual petitions with texts and miniatures, made by famous calligraphers and painters; miniatures of the main art workshops of Safavid Iran, which are in the city of Tabriz, Qazvin, Shiraz, Isfahan.

A special section of the exhibition will be dedicated to the traditional art of carpet weaving. Thus, one of the most important items will be a prayer rug with the Shiite holy inscriptions of the mid XVI century, woven in workshops of the Shah's Iran of the Safavid era, which was presented by Iran Shah to Turkish Sultan, was kept in the treasury of the palace as a jewel.