A majority of Islamic art can be located in Arab countries, which is as if they are geographically based. However, there are Muslims all across the globe. For example, Muslims are the second-largest population in the city of Hyderabad in India. To pay tribute to Muslims there, their Islamic culture and art, India will be opening at the end of the year, an Islamic art gallery in National Art Museum in Hyderabad, Salar Jung. The dedicated space will have different kinds of Islamic artifacts – we’re going to tell you all about it.
Back in 2009, there was an exhibition of Indian Islamic Art in Sharjah, UAE. With 413 Islamic artifacts, the exhibition made a fuss, which inspired India to have an exclusive Islamic art gallery. Since then, they’ve been working on the project but it kept getting delayed, in light of COVID-19. But the project has finally come back to fruition and It’s happening this year and there will be a dedicated Islamic gallery with a collection of more than 2,500 artifacts.
The collection of over two thousand Islamic pieces was distributed in the museum geographically. Meaning, pieces that belong to India are put in the Indian gallery. The same is applied for Middle Eastern artifacts, Persian, Japanese, or Western origin. Now they’re all going to be collected and put in the gallery covering 26,000 square feet of the museum’s eastern wing, making up two floors!
Artworks include ceramics, manuscripts, metalware, celestial globes, carpets, astrolabes, porcelains, jades and copies of the Holy Quran. One of the most valuable pieces will be a knife that belongs to Queen Nur Jahan. It’s a fruit knife that has a jade hilt and is embedded with diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires. Another precious artifact is dated back to the ninth century, and it’s the oldest folio of the Holy Quran in the Kufi script.
Don’t miss the gallery at one of India’s grandest museums!