Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy books

13956 Views 53 Replies 19 Participants Last post by Hebrewtext, May 13, 2007

Redalinho

Discussion Starter · May 3, 2007

http://www.ideo.ma/mbs2/En/index.htm

The Moroccan British Society is supported by:
Maroc Telecom, ONA (Omnium Nord Africain), CMH (Compagnie Marocaine des Hydrocarbures), AKWA Group, ONE (Office National d’Electricité), ONMT (Office National Marocain de Tourisme), Banque Centrale Populaire, Caisse de dépôt et de Gestion, OCP (Office Chérifien des Phosphates).
Coexist Foundation is a UK registered charity whose mission is to promote understanding and good relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as to improve their relations with other faiths and those of no faith, by means of education, dialogue and research.
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The Moroccan British Society’s main purpose is to provide means of all kinds likely to allow the Moroccan and the British peoples to acquire a better mutual understanding of their civilisations and cultures as well as political, academic, scientific, economic, financial and commercial institutions, so as to promote and foster their friendly relations and cooperative ties in every domain.
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Saint Catherine Foundation supports conservation work at the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai. The monastery’s Library is the present focus of conservation activities. To safeguard this historic archive, the Foundation is raising funds for the renovation of the Library building and the conservation and storage of the monastery’s ancient and fragile collection of early books and manuscripts.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #2 · May 3, 2007

Kufic Qur'an

Early Qur'ans are important as evidence of the development of the written recording of Islam's holy book. This copy of the Qur'an in Arabic, probably from the ninth century, is copied on to vellum and uses an early script called kufic.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 3, 2007

Barcelona Haggadah

Stunningly illustrated with people, flowers, birds and imaginary creatures, this prayer book for the festival of Passover is one of the most richly pictorial of all Jewish texts. Meant to accompany the Passover eve service and festive meal, it was also a status symbol for its owner in 14th-century Spain.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 3, 2007

Spanish Hebrew Bible

This 14th-century design illuminates the Tetragrammaton: the four-letter inscription denoting the name of God. Despite lacking all representational imagery, the abstract illuminations manage to evoke the ceiling of a temple dome, and imbue the manuscript with a divine presence.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 3, 2007

This page of the Duke of Sussex's German Pentateuch shows the kind of marginal decoration often painted in Hebrew medieval manuscripts, especially in Germany. The strange beasts here are outlined in minute Hebrew lettering. As a whole, the richly-decorated book is a fine example of the South German style of illumination, with its rich, contrasting colours and exaggerated, often strange-looking faces and animals, and micrographic adornments such as these odd marginal creatures.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 3, 2007

This is a rare example of a Qur'an which survived the Christian reconquest of Spain - the expulsion of Islam from the peninsula under Ferdinand and Isabella, a process largely completed by 1492, when their recapture of Granada earned them the title 'the Catholic Monarchs'.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 3, 2007

This legacy of an artist monk living in Northumbria in the early eighth century is a precious testament to the tenacity of Christian belief during one of the most turbulent periods of British history. Costly in time and materials, superb in design, the manuscript is among our greatest artistic and religious treasures. It was made and used at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a major religious community that housed the shrine of St Cuthbert, who died in 687.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 3, 2007

This Qur'an from the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt provides a splendid example of a carpet page in an Islamic manuscript: the rich, ornate, ingeniously interwoven abstract patterns reminiscent of an exotic carpet.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 3, 2007

In this impressive New Testament - perhaps the most beautiful example in Greek in the British Library - a picture shows the Evangelist St Luke at his desk, his writing implements ready to hand. It serves as the frontispiece to the Gospel of St Luke. The manuscript was made at a high point in the history of the capital of Eastern Christendom, and demonstrates the unbroken tradition of the use of Greek as the literate language of the Eastern Mediterranean.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #10 · May 3, 2007

This fascinating psalter from medieval Sicily shows what a cultural crossroads it was under the enlightened rule of King Roger II: the document carries three parallel version of the psalms in Greek, Latin and Arabic, the latter probably for the benefit of converts from Islam.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 3, 2007

This codex is one of the finest examples of the very few extant large, profusely illustrated Syriac Gospels, produced in what is now northern Iraq between c.1190 and 1240. Some believe that Syriac may have been the language in which some of the original Gospels were written.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 3, 2007

In this bilingual copy of the Four Gospels from 1308, the Arabic version is in a parallel column to the right of the Coptic text. This is the Gospel of St Matthew.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #13 · May 3, 2007

This remarkable manuscript is very different to what the casual glance might suggest: despite the Islamic style carpet page, and the Arabic script, this is a Christian document - an account of the Gospels - made in Palestine in the 14th century.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #14 · May 3, 2007

This striking manuscript comes from the oldest independent country in Africa. It was commissioned in the late 1600s by the emperor for use in his royal city of Gondar. Generously illuminated with distinctive miniature paintings and highly decorative coloured borders, this is one of the most beautiful of the Library's Ethiopian manuscripts. Its many illustrations include Moses, Aaron, Ruth, Eusebius, John and Carpanius, scenes from the life of Christ, and portraits of the Evangelists.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #15 · May 3, 2007

This strikingly illustrated prayer scroll is written in Armenian, the language of the world's first Christian country. The picture of St Sargis on horseback would have provided protection for the 17th-century traveller carrying it.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #16 · May 3, 2007

Though Queen Melisende's Psalter is probably not the earliest manuscript preserved from the Crusader Kingdom, it represents Crusading illumination of the early period at its best. From details within the psalter we know its place of origin to be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and we can also date it fairly accurately between 1131 and 1143.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #17 · May 3, 2007

As the earliest copy in English of part of the Old Testament and with over 400 illustrations, this manuscript is both remarkable and unique. The collaboration of a team of translators, scribes and an artist over many years, it is a vivid example of the demand for sacred texts in 11th-century England that were accessible to everyday people, who wanted a Bible presented in a way they could understand.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #18 · May 3, 2007

The King James, or Authorised, Version of the Bible remains the most widely published text in the English language. It was the work of around 50 scholars, who were appointed in 1604 by King James (r. 1603–25), and it is dedicated to him.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #19 · May 3, 2007

This scroll was specially prepared for one of the farthest-flung and most remarkable religious communities of history: the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng. For 1000 years they are said to have maintained an outpost of Judaism on the banks of the Yellow River, but ended up as victims of their own success at integrating with other Chinese. However, the exact status of the Kaifeng community, and the extent of their Jewish practices, is not entirely clear.

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Redalinho

Discussion Starter · #20 · May 3, 2007

This elegant, detailed Qur'an is one of the earliest dated examples of naskhi script, the Arabic calligraphic hand which became one of the most popular styles for such manuscripts thanks to its legibility.

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