Waqif Art Centre pays tribute to those who wrote history to remind the present of the Arab world’s glorious past in a special Ramadan exhibition titled ‘Recollections on Paper’.
Unveiled on Friday, the retrospective teems with a plethora of rare manuscripts, books, maps, and works by calligraphists dating back as early as the 16th century.
Priced at QR26,500, the most valuable in the collection are manuscripts by Abu Tayyab Al Mutannabi and Abu Firas Al Hamdanii, two great poets during their time.
One of the eye-catching articles on display is a Quran written on palm leaves two hundred years ago in the African continent.
Another interesting find is ‘An Accurate Narration of Quran Reading and Its Applications’, written and recollected by Ibn Kattani in Constantinople in 1778.
Made with a lot of effort and time is a gold glazed calligraphic composition on a leaf skeleton dating back to19th to 20th century Ottoman Turkey. Works by renowned early calligraphists Hashim Mohammad Al Baghdadi and Abdul Aziz Al Rifai are also showcased.
Old maps showing how early voyagers conceptualised some portions and the whole of the Arabian Peninsula are also put on show, some of which have been impressively copper or steel engraved. In addition 19th century Arabic scrolls are also displayed.
A total of 111 books are also exhibited and available for sale. Some of the great titles are ‘The Art of Calligraphy in the Islamic Heritage’, The Arts of Islam’, ‘Islamic Science’ and ‘Islam and the Arab World’. Visitors can scan through the pages of dozens of books on shelf in one of the halls which has been converted into a reading room.
The exhibition will run until end of September. It is open from 7pm to 12 midnight every day during Ramadan, and following the Holy Month, Saturdays through Thursdays from 10am to 12.30pm and 4.30pm to 10pm and Fridays 5pm to 10pm.
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