LONDON, 29 May 2007 — Prince Rasheed ibn Hassan II, brother of Morocco’s King Muhammad VI, and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, inaugurated an exhibition entitled “Sacred: Discover What We Share,” which has been organized by the British Library to showcase side-by-side some of the world’s earliest-surviving, most important and beautiful religious texts from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.
Mohammed Jameel, founder of the Coexist Foundation, who financed the Islamic part of the exhibition in cooperation with the Moroccan British Society, attended the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by representatives of the three faiths.
Rare and exquisite examples from the British Library’s collections — considered to be one of the greatest in the world — were presented alongside treasures on loan from other institutions. These include the Ma’il Qur’an, which is one of the earliest copies of the Qur’an in the world to have survived and dates from the beginning of the 8th century.
The exhibition is also displaying the Syriac Pentateuch, the earliest known dated Biblical manuscript, and the curtain covering the door of the Kaaba that was made for the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmajeed I, as well as other lavishly illustrated or decorated books and manuscripts that have never been on public display. The exhibition also marks the first time that texts from these three faiths have been displayed and explored together side-by-side.
The ceremony was attended by Lord Melvyn Bragg, Archbishop Kevin McDonald, the Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop Dr. Rowan Williams and Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Organizers are planning a world tour of the exhibition. For more information, visit www.bl.uk/sacred.
