Book from Egypt that could be world’s oldest up for auction in London
Crosby-Schoyen Codex, discovered in 1952, was buried for over 1,500 years
Book that ‘revolutionised the study of Christianity’ expected to fetch over $3.8m at Christie’s
Updated 10 June 2024
Arab News
LONDON: A book from Egypt put up for auction in London may be the oldest in the world, experts have suggested.
The Crosby-Schoyen Codex “revolutionised the study of Christianity” and could be sold for more than £3 million ($3.813 million).
The oldest complete text of the book of Jonah, the codex was written around the third century AD and buried for more than 1,500 years. It will go on sale at Christie’s auction house in London on June 11.
“All of the oldest books in the world are roughly dated and have now been re-dated to the third or fourth century,” Eugenio Donadoni, a senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s, told the BBC.
“This (codex) was previously dated (to) the second, but they’re all around third or fourth. This could be the earliest, but you can’t say with absolute position.”
Donadoni said the codex is of huge significance in understanding the spread of early Christianity.
“It’s a cornerstone of early faith and a witness to the earliest spread of Christianity around the Mediterranean.
“What’s particularly fascinating about it is that it’s a self consciously assembled compilation of texts for the celebration of one of the earliest Easters and monastic communities in upper Egypt.
“It’s one of the three major finds of the 20th century that revolutionised the study of Christianity.
“We’re talking about early Christians finding their feet as Christians, still steeped in Jewish traditions.”
The codex was discovered as part of a larger trove, found buried in a jar at the base of a mountain near the small town of Dishna in 1952.
It was acquired by the University of Mississippi in 1955, and eventually bought by Norwegian manuscript collector Dr. Martin Schoyen in 1988.
Schoyen’s collection — at over 20,000 texts — is one of the largest in existence. It includes 400 fragments of early copies of the Bible.
The codex — the oldest known book in a private collection in the world — is one of 61 manuscripts being sold at Christie’s by Schoyen.
Also for sale is a 13th-century Hebrew manuscript expected to sell for more than £1.5 million.
On its website, Christie’s said: “The sale spans 1,300 years of cultural history and includes world heritage manuscripts such as the Crosby-Schoyen Codex, the Holkham Hebrew Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus and the Geraardsbergen Bible, but also Greek literature, humanist masterpieces, early English law, a historically important Scottish chronicle, and the earliest known book-binding.”
ISLAMABAD: Fatima Salman, a 43-year-old miniature painter, found solace in art after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, using her brush and canvas as therapy to overcome the disease and paint her way to healing.
Nearly five years later, she curated the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) this week, featuring the work of nine cancer survivors whose techniques range from oil, watercolors, mixed media and calligraphy.
Cancer has become a growing burden in Pakistan in recent years, posing a significant cause for concern. An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report in 2021 says the proportion of newly diagnosed cancers is 0.18 million in Pakistan, the number of cancer fatalities is 0.11 million, and the number of prevalent cases (5 year) is 0.32 million. In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate, with one out of nine women now having a lifetime risk of the disease. Pakistan also has one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates globally.
“Initially, after my diagnosis, I had taken a little break from painting,” Salman, who graduated from Lahore’s renowned National College of Arts in 2001, told Arab News at the exhibition.
Pakistani artist Fatima Salman gestures as she displays her artworks during the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts on September 11, 2024. (AN Photo)
“But soon I felt a void … So, that’s when I thought that I don’t have much time, and I have so much work to do. So, I started painting, that was my therapy.”
Even after her recovery from stage four metastatic cancer, Salman said her creative work proved vital for her to open a new chapter of hope in her life.
“As I went through all the life-changing challenges, I thought that I could not be the only one going through this,” she added.
Salman then started looking for other cancer survivors interested in exhibiting their artwork.
“The basic idea is to create a platform for artists who can just come together and voice their feelings through art,” she said about the exhibition this week, which also saw the launch of a deeply personal memoir, My Cancer Journey, by Shirin Gheba Najib.
Pakistani artist Shirin Gheba Najib speaks to former Pakistani culture minister, Jamal Shah, during the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts on September 11, 2024. (AN Photo)
A 70-year-old retired school principal, Najib said painting had always been a “constant” in her life since she completed her first oil painting at the age of 12 but she had to put her passion on hold when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021.
Weakened by the illness and the relentless trips to the hospital, she found refuge in writing instead.
“I used to take my laptop to chemotherapy as each session used to take six to eight hours, where [one could] write very freely,” Najib told Arab News.
The articles crafted while battling for her life became the foundation for the newly launched book and also gave Najib the impetus to go back to painting.
“Now that I’m completely out of cancer, which was within 15 months, now I’ve started painting again,” she said with a smile.
Speaking to Arab News, another artist, Ambreen Rashid Khan, reflected her newfound appreciation for life following her battle with stage 4 breast cancer, diagnosed four years ago.
“It’s strange,” the 65-year-old retired schoolteacher said. “You take life for granted until something like this happens. After that you learn that your time is short. So that is it, I love color and I love happiness.”
Khan said she started painting flowers in bright colors after her recovery as a display of her “gratitude and happiness.”
Experimenting with both oil and watercolors, she said her aim was to paint life and nature itself.
Asked about her ambition, she said that she wanted to “leave something behind” as her legacy but also to live out the rest of her days “in happiness.”
Sixty-year-old Nafisa Ather, an Islamic calligrapher, also said painting became her biggest source of solace when she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Cancer struck me [and] the thing which I didn’t have in me before was the fear that you are going to die,” she told Arab News. “And I just felt that I still have to fulfill some of my responsibilities, which have not been fulfilled. So, I think that gave me courage.”
Painting had helped her fight her fear of death, Ather said.
“You are creating something, you are making something and actually you forget your fear. That’s the beauty of it.
“Don’t give up on life,” she added. “If you give up, you’ll lose the battle. You have to believe you will survive.”
Faisal Samra: ‘If I’m not an artist, then I don’t exist’
The Saudi-Bahraini artist discusses his roots and how it helped develop his experimental style
Updated 12 September 2024
Rawaa Talass
DUBAI: The seasoned Saudi-Bahraini artist Faisal Samra always knew what he wanted to achieve in his life, and faced down resistance with his rebellious nature.
“Everything was fixed and planned,” he says, looking back on his formative years. “Since my childhood, I knew what I wanted to do.”
Born in Bahrain in 1956, Faisal Samra is the descendant of a Saudi family that had settled in British-ruled Bahrain. (Supplied)
Born in Bahrain in 1956, Samra is the descendant of a Saudi family that had settled in British-ruled Bahrain, where, he says, work opportunities were, at the time, more readily available than in the Kingdom. Samra, who is based between Bahrain and Spain, describes his early years in Bahrain, spent in a large and old Khaleeji-style house, as crucial to his future career.
“As a child, when my family had people over for big meals, they cooked over fire and wood, which transformed into charcoal. I took this charcoal and made lines on walls,” he tells Arab News with a laugh. “It all started from this moment. This was an important stage because I still work with charcoal. My parents would paint over the scribbles, but I drew again. I wasn’t just drawing on walls at home, but also on the streets. At school, I was drawing on tables and I couldn’t control myself; I was obsessed. When I was six or seven, my art teacher told me, ‘Instead of drawing on tables, here is a piece of paper and some coloring pencils,’ and it was through him that I discovered colors. My parents never bought for me art materials to encourage me, but I kept drawing until this day.”
“Performance 36” from Faisal Samra’s “Distorted Reality” series, 2007. (Supplied)
At the age of 12, Samra and his family moved to Saudi Arabia, settling in the Eastern Province. At school, he continued his pursuit of art and theater. He and his friends, he says, became “the talk of town.” When he was 14, he received his first art book — a collection of Michelangelo’s drawings. All in all, art was, and still is, his life.
“Art is not separate from me. It is not a job, but an activity of making life. On a daily basis, whether I am working on a project or not, I have to draw something,” he says. “If you truly want to do art the right way and live in it, it has to be a disease. You can’t get rid of it, as if you’re pressing a ‘Stop’ button. True art has to live inside your body and surround you every moment. It’s a question of existence: If I’m not an artist, then I don’t exist.”
During the 1970s, in his late teens, Samra decided he wanted to study art abroad, specifically in Paris — an idea that was quickly rejected by his family. He says that back then the regional art scene lacked both mentors and access, so he wanted to go where the action was: Europe.
“In one way or another, I had to leave,” he says. “And I didn’t want to study art (just) anywhere: I wanted Paris, I wanted the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts because it was the most challenging art school to get into at that time.”
To save up money, Samra worked as a clerk at the petroleum company Aramco, while applying for delegations, via Riyadh, for educational opportunities abroad. And, in 1974, aged 18, he travelled to Paris, thanks to support provided by the Ministry of Media. It was there that he would learn about modern and contemporary European artists, and also attend art critique sessions.
During the 1980s, Samra spent his time in Saudi Arabia and, later, in France, where he took on the role of art consultant at the Institut du Monde Arabe, the then-newly founded cultural center for Arab affairs. As for his own art, a few exhibitions were set up in Paris in the late Eighties and early Nineties. Today, his works have been acquired by, among others, the British Museum, the Jameel Art Foundation, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Bahrain National Museum, and he is currently represented by Ayyam Gallery in Dubai.
Over the years, Samra has experimented with film, performance, painting and photography. “I don’t like still water; I like it to be moving. I’m exploring to find something different,” he says. “The core of my research is man’s existence in our world, and how we react to it, and how the world reacts to him.”
A recent Faisal Samra exhibition in Dubai. (Courtesy of Pia Torelli)
A sense of disturbing movement occupies some of his figurative works, as in his recent painting series “Immortal Moment (Coping With The Shock),” which depicts open-mouthed faces, partially covered with an explosion of paint, as if they have been shot. One of his best-known series, “Distorted Reality,” which was intended to confront media biases in the early 2000s, features covered individuals in blurred motion. In essence, such bold works portray the troubled state of the world, and he doesn’t sugarcoat his words.
“We are living in times of change, but not development — “development” means that you are headed to something better,” says Samra. “If we developed in a certain area, then we destroyed something else. We invented things but we lost things at the same time.”
Camila Cabello shines in Tony Ward couture at MTV awards
Updated 12 September 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: American singer-songwriter Camila Cabello made waves at the MTV Video Music Awards when she dazzled in a breathtaking gown by Lebanese-Italian designer Tony Ward.
The dress featured a black lace design adorned with intricate embroidery that flowed across sheer fabric, with a fitted silhouette and semi-transparent sleeves. She completed the ensemble with a dramatic black lace veil.
The dress featured a black lace design adorned with intricate embroidery that flowed across sheer fabric. (AFP)
Meanwhile, pop icon Taylor Swift dominated the night, taking home seven trophies. The accolades put her on level terms with Beyonce as most-awarded musician in the VMAs’ 40-year history.
Swift snagged the top honor, Video of the Year, for the bleak black and white “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone. “Good Luck, Babe” singer Chappell Roan was named best new artist.
Blackpink singer Lisa won best K-pop video for her solo hit “Rockstar, while South African artist Tyla claimed the Afrobeats award for “Water” and Brazilian singer Anitta snagged best Latin video for “Mil Veces.”
The show opened with rapper Eminem performing “Houdini” from his album, “The Death of Slim Shady.” He was then joined via video feed by country singer Jelly Roll for their hit “Somebody Save Me.”
Katy Perry, recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, wore enormous silver butterfly wings as she sang hits such as “Teenage Dream” and “Firework” on a futuristic set.
Gulf Theater Festival in Riyadh revives tradition, fosters regional cultural exchange
For the first time since 1988, the festival is being hosted in Saudi Arabia, celebrating a rich legacy of Gulf theatrical collaboration
Event, running from Sept. 10 to 17, brings together artists, performers, and cultural figures from across the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to promote regional artistic exchange
Updated 11 September 2024
Waad Hussain
RIYADH: The 14th Gulf Theater Festival kicked off in Riyadh, marking a grand return after an eight-year hiatus.
For the first time since 1988, the festival is being hosted in Saudi Arabia, celebrating a rich legacy of Gulf theatrical collaboration.
The event, running from Sept. 10 to 17, brings together artists, performers, and cultural figures from across the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to promote regional artistic exchange.
Held at the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Theater, the festival commenced with an opening ceremony that featured prominent figures from the Gulf and Arab theater scenes.
As part of the proceedings, the festival will include a series of competitive theatrical performances, workshops, and discussions aimed at enhancing production and collaboration.
The event also honors creative minds, recognizing their contributions to the art form with a series of awards.
Speaking on behalf of Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Sultan Al-Bazie, CEO of the Theater and Performing Arts Commission, highlighted the festival’s significance.
“The festival is a night of Gulf culture, celebrating theater as a platform for creativity that has enriched cultural memory and fostered collaboration between our sister nations,” he said.
Al-Bazie also emphasized the support the cultural sectors receive from Saudi Arabia’s leadership, noting that the festival reflects the Kingdom’s vision for advancing the Gulf theater scene.
“The event aligns with our commitment to creating a thriving Gulf cultural landscape that enhances national identity, encourages dialogue with the world, and boosts the economic sustainability of the arts,” he added.
In an exclusive comment to Arab News, Al-Bazie shared his hopes for the future of the festival.
He said: “The festival returns after an absence of eight years and is held periodically among the GCC countries.
“It will continue to grow stronger and greater and evolve into institutional work to promote aid, theatrical production, training, and joint efforts. These are all hopes we aim to achieve in the coming years.”
With its rich blend of performances, lectures, and cultural exchange, the Gulf Theater Festival is expected to solidify Riyadh’s role as a central hub for regional artistic collaboration.
The event not only revives long-standing traditions but also paves the way for a more sustainable and dynamic future for Gulf theater.
‘I Am Georgina’ highlights Saudi Arabia in first trailer for season three
Updated 11 September 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: After two successful seasons, “Soy Georgina” (“I Am Georgina”) is set to return to Netflix with a third season on Sept. 18 that highlights star Georgina Rodriguez's life in Saudi Arabia, according to a trailer dropped by the streaming giant today.
The new season will give a peek inside power couple Georgina Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo’s luxurious new life in Saudi Arabia, a move that took place in Dec. 2022 when the Portuguese football legend signed with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr.
The trailer begins with shots of Rodriguez in AlUla, Saudi Arabia’s historic UNESCO heritage site, as she poses in front of the Instagram-famous mirrored Maraya Concert Hall.
There is a strong focus on her long-term partnership with Ronaldo as she’s seen supporting from the stands at various football matches.
The trailer also briefly spotlights Rodriguez and her family – including the couple’s children and her stepson Cristiano Jr. – at the St. Regis Red Sea Resort in Saudi Arabia.
Light-hearted moments show the family spending time at the dinner table at their Saudi home, laughing and making conversation.
The trailer also prominently features Rodriguez at Paris Fashion Week, waiting nervously backstage as she gets ready to walk the runway for Swiss fashion label Vetements.
