India’s largest art museum and the country’s third largest museum will open an Islamic art gallery by next year.
The Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad is believed to have the largest individual collection of antiques and art treasures in the world, attributed to Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, commonly known as Salar Jung III, a former prime minister of the once princely state . from Hyderabad Deccan.
The museum currently has over 2,500 rare Islamic objects, some of which have never been on display to the public before. However, these are, at present, presented in various galleries within Indian, Middle Eastern, European and Far Eastern collections. These will now be exhibited exclusively in one place, in the next gallery of Islamic art.
In an interview, the director of the Salar Jung Museum, Dr A Nagender Reddy, said Khaleej weather this Islamic art gallery was supposed to open much earlier, but plans were stalled due to Covid-19 and the unavailability of skilled labor. However, the gallery is expected to be inaugurated by the end of this year.
The idea to create the gallery originated in 2009, when around 400 Islamic objects from the Salar Jung Museum were exhibited at an Indian Islamic art exhibition held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Measuring approximately 26,000 square feet, the new gallery will be located in the east wing of the museum and will feature an array of artifacts including manuscripts, Persian rugs, swords and bulletproof vests, ceramics and copies of the Holy Quran.
Among its most valuable possessions is the oldest folio of the Qur’an in Kufic script, dated to the 9th century, a rare fruit knife with a jade handle decorated with precious stones belonging to the Mughal Empress, Nur Jahan, and Mughal emperor’s archer rings. , Shah Jahan, who commissioned the construction of the iconic Taj Mahal.
READ: Turkish police seize more than 16,000 historical objects in the capital
Comments are closed.