DOHA: The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) is organising a conference on the study and preservation of historic copies of the Holy Quran on April 22 and 23 at the MIA auditorium.
“This is the first time this kind of conference is being held in the museum. It fits into our ambition to be a centre of learning and study about Islamic art and the conservation and study of objects from across civilisations,” Dr Thalia Kennedy, Deputy Director, Education, told local media during a tour of MIA’s conservation lab yesterday.
The conference entitled “The Illumined Word - Historic Ourans: Codicology and Conservation” will feature public talks by renowned scholars and experts in field of study and preservation of historic copies of the Holy Quran.
Conservators, librarians, conservation students, manuscript experts, art historians, and other interested professionals or learners are expected to attend the conference that will focus on the art and physical features of historic copies of the Holy Quran from various parts of the world and how to conserve and care for these manuscripts.
“The conference will look not too much on the content and philosophy of the Holy Quran but instead on the physical features of historic copies, looking at how Holy Qurans have been copied throughout the centuries, looking at specific examples of historic copies and then thinking very carefully about how these copies are cared for and conserved in institutions like the MIA,” explained Dr Kennedy.
Art historian Nabil Safwat will deliver the keynote address under the theme Word as Insight: the copyists of the Our’an.
Other speakers at the conference include Dr Abdullah AI Muneef (King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies), curatorial consultant and scholar Marcus Fraser, Zachary Valentine Wright (Northwestern University-Qatar), Mahmoud Zaki (Institute of Arabic Manuscripts, ALESCO), Dr Nourane Ben Azzouna (University of Vienna), Dr Annabel Gallop (British Library), Dr Nuria Martinez de Castilla Munoz (Complutense University of Madrid), MIA curators Dr Mounia Chekhab and Dr Nur Sobers Khan, conservators Wael Mohamed EI Said (Bibliotheca Alexandria), Karin Scheper (University Library of Leiden), and Paul Hepworth.
They will also lead separate practical sessions in MIA’s conservation lab, which has some of the most advanced equipment.
Amelie Couvrat-Desvergnes, conservator, said the lab acquires new equipment at a regular basis to achieve the museum’s objective to be of high international standard.
The lab is run by specialised conservators with expertise in various artefacts including manuscript, paper and book, stone and wood, textile, ceramics and glass and metal. It could take three to four months or more of tedious and complex conservation process to restore an object to its original state, said Couvrat-Desvergnes. Entrance to the public lectures is free of charge.
The Peninsula
