This week, Director of the Parker Library, Professor Philippa Hoskin, curated a special exhibition of Arabic manuscripts that was viewed by a visiting delegation of Uzbek academics. Amongst the manuscripts is one that is normally housed at the University Library, a seventeenth-century copy of the illustrated manuscript of the Shahnama ('Book of Kings').

The Shahnama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 CE, telling the mythical and historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.

The work is of central importance in Persian culture and language and is regarded as a literary masterpiece. Corpus' copy of the Shahnama was produced by the same group of calligraphers and artists who worked on the manuscripts which are now kept in the Royal Collection in Windsor Castle and the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg. Illustrations from the Corpus manuscript can be seen on the UL Digital Library.

The display also included other materials related to Central Asia, including medieval maps of the region, a copy of a seventeenth-century Qur’an, and a very early and rare fourteenth-century manuscript of the Kalila wa Dimna.

The visitors

The Centre of Islamic Civilisation in Uzbekistan have recently sponsored the publication of the catalogue of Central Asian manuscripts in Cambridge collections, which includes several manuscripts from Corpus and the Parker Library.

The visit was organised by Dr Firuza Melville, Director of Research for The Cambridge Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies and a Fellow of Pembroke College. Dr Melville has also been a Director of Studies in AMES for Corpus. The guests included:

Professor Shakhzod Islomov of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Professor Uygun Gafurov, Rector of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan.

Dr Shovosil Ziyodov, Director of the International Research Center of Imam Bukhari in Samarkand.

Dr Jamoliddin Karimov, Director of the International Research Center of Imam Maturidi in Tahskent.

Dr Muzaffarkhon Joniyev, Director of the International Research Center of Imam Termizi.

Ms Ekaterina Soboleva, Coordinator of the visit on behalf of the Centre of Islamic Civilisation in Tashkent. 

More photos of the day can be seen on our Flickr account.

The exhibition will remain in the Parker Library until 17 December and will be viewed by guests here for the Commemoration of Benefactors Dinner this Friday.