Diversity of Islam gist of Koran show
WASHINGTON — The Koran, revered by Muslims, is the centerpiece of a first-of-its-kind exhibition in the United States as the Smithsonian displays manuscripts from one of the top Koran collections.
The Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery announced Tuesday that “The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures From the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts” will bring 48 manuscripts and folios from the museum in Istanbul together with manuscripts from the collection of the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art, which are together at the Smithsonian’s museum of Asian art.
The exhibition will be open Oct. 15 through Feb. 20. Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Sackler and Freer and curator of Islamic art, says this exhibition is an opportunity to “focus on the importance of this as a work of art and its importance in art history.”
The Arabic text of the Koran was fixed as early as the late seventh century, Farhad said, but the variety in Korans is “staggering.” The exhibition will showcase different styles of calligraphy and illumination. Visitors will be able to compare different Korans and “see the sweep of history in front of us,” said Sheila Blair, an art history professor who specializes in Islamic art at Boston College and Virginia Commonwealth University. “It shows how diverse the Muslim world is.”
— The Associated Press
Guyana Anglicans OK female priests
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — An Anglican diocese that represents three small South American countries has broken with local tradition and is allowing women to be trained and ordained as priests.
The Diocese of Guyana said Tuesday that women in Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are eligible. The announcement comes after years of lobbying by women in the church.
Religious leaders attending a two-day synod in Guyana approved the move Monday. Anglican and Catholic churches in those three countries have been losing ground to a growing evangelical movement in recent decades.
Dozens of women in other Anglican communities across the world have been ordained as priests and bishops.
— The Associated Press
Indian state labels Jews as minorities
MUMBAI, India — Jews in the Indian state of Maharashtra were granted minority status this week, a decision that was celebrated by local Jewish leaders, though they said they were still trying to grasp the full range of benefits Jews might derive from the new status.
There are about 4,500 Jews among India’s population of more than 1.2 billion people, and about 3,000 of them live in Maharashtra, according to unofficial estimates by Judah Samuel, the president of the Shaare Rason Synagogue, who collected the data to submit to Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla.
“The Jews feel very connected to India, which is our motherland, while Israel is our fatherland,” Samuel said. “Our loyalty also lies with India, this being the country that accepted us almost 2,500 years ago, and one of the only countries in the world which never persecuted the Jews in all these years.”
Minority status ensures that Jews are separately counted by the census, and it grants other benefits and concessions, though some Jewish leaders were not certain what they might be. “We at least feel that we are accepted officially by the government, and the main benefit is the observance of our High Holidays,” said Solomon Sopher, president of the Indian Jewish Congress, who helped Samuel with the petition.