Exhibition of pages from medieval to modern Qur’ans with comments from Boston’s Islamic communities

“Sacred Pages” offers visitors a way to broaden their understanding of the Qur’an, Islam, and Islamic art. Drawing upon the MFA’s rich collection of loose pages from Qur’ans dating from medieval to modern times, this exhibition showcases 25 examples, illustrating their significance as masterful and sacred works of art and exploring how these objects are understood by individual followers of Islam living in the Boston area today. Twenty-four people, from all walks of life, have written labels for this exhibition. These individuals, all Muslims from the Boston area, visited the Museum in the early months of 2013 to meet one another and select a page to write about. These beautiful works of Arabic calligraphy, made as early as the 8th and as recently as the 20th century, were created in Egypt, Morocco, Iran, and Turkey. The diversity of time and place of production is mirrored by the manner in which they are displayed, as the exhibition pairs curatorial interpretation about developments in Islamic art with personal statements by members of Boston’s Islamic communities invited to share their comments and reactions to the pages.