Shah "Abbas II (r. 1642–1666) and the Mughal ambassador, Iran, Isfahan, c.1663. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper, pasted on blue cardboard; © The Aga Khan Trust for Culture

LONDON, UK.-Spirit & Life, an exhibition of rare Islamic art and manuscripts never before displayed in the UK, will run this summer at The Ismaili Centre, South Kensington, London. Highlights will include miniatures from one of the finest illustrated manuscripts ever produced, the Persian epic Shahnama (The Book of Kings) and an extremely rare copy of the Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sina, used in Europe and the Middle East as the standard medical textbook for over 500 years.

The London exhibition will display over 165 objects from the collection showing the diversity of artistic traditions in the Muslim world. Textiles, exquisite miniatures, rare manuscripts, ceramics, precious pages from the Qur’an, scientific medical texts, books of fables, and tiles and musical instruments will be shown alongside some of the finest portraits of Ottoman sultans and Qajar shahs of the 19th century. The exhibition covers a geographical area stretching from India in the East to Morocco in the West and spans over a thousand years from the ninth to the 19th century. Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=20659