Treasures of Islam in Dublin – Chester Beatty Library

Welcome, everyone. I am in Dublin, Ireland. And right now I am visiting the famous Chester Beatty library. This library has one of the best collections of Islamic manuscripts in the world. And what you can see around me are those very manuscripts I want to quickly tell you about this collection.

Just to be the collection is basically

special because of the manuscripts is possesses.

And out of all places, amazingly, this library is in Ireland in Dublin today. Okay? This is where some of the most ancient biblical manuscripts are, there are some papyrus manuscripts from ancient Egypt that we may look at later on. But let's start with these these Islamic masterpieces.

One of the pieces here is from Egypt is a Quran manuscript from the 14th century. Okay, from Cairo, Egypt, and the Kellogg river is Ahmed bin Kamal Al Ansari. Okay, so the date is about 1332 to 1336. Cairo is a masterpiece of Islamic art from Egypt from Mameluke Egypt. Similarly, this one, the Quran illuminated by Abu Bakr known as sundal. Okay, again for the 14th century, the date is about 1306 to 1315 Cairo. And there are some other manuscripts here. This is a masterpiece of Islamic calligraphy Quran, in Tamar script, very beautiful Islamic script. And this is a history book

in the Arabic language, from again, the 14th century history of Mamelukes of Egypt.

These books are on astronomy, as you can see, there's an astro lib, and instrument that was used by medieval Muslims to navigate. And to measure heights to measure depths, it was a mathematical instrument that was used for multiple

purposes. And here we have a book. Okay.

Basically, the great dog here, astronomical, you know, points are being taught through this drawing of stars because this is positioning of the stars, okay. And it's demonstrated through a diagram of a doc, okay, where the star stars would be in the sky. So it looks like a dog in the heavens. Or, like, for example, some people even say there is a bear out there, you know, there's a small barrens a big bear. Okay. So these are books on astronomy, then there are some Islamic

masterpieces from Iran, from Persia, you can see, okay,

these are miniatures. Inside the book, five points, Hamza of Nizami in his army with a very famous Persian point. And if we move forward, this way, you have some beautiful Islamic manuscripts here as well. Okay. Persian poetry as you can see, okay, again, from the 15th century, this is very, very beautiful. I wish I could go through every single manuscript and give the details that simply don't have the time to do that, and is going to make this video very long. I just want everyone to know that Chester Beatty library in Dublin has one of the best collections of Islamic manuscripts in the world outside of the Middle East. You may be surprised to know this, but it is here. Okay. Maybe

there are Muslims living in Ireland, they don't know about it. And the point of this video is to highlight how much of a treasure this particular library possesses of Islamic history. And Muslims in Ireland in particular, can come and visit this this place, and of course around the world if you happen to be in Ireland. Okay, so there are some Islamic manuscripts on my left here. Okay, these are some of the things I want to show you very quickly. So these are the types of Islamic scripts.

Muslim calligraphers would use the top you can see Bismillah Rahmani Raheem written or transcribed in Western COVID script, which is one of the early scripts the Quran was written and then you have underneath the later COVID script, very boxlike very square, okay. And it is later on. It's an eastern style primarily used in Iraq and places like Iran, okay. Then you have NUS you have UK, you have Thorlos you have Miss Dalek. You have McGraw Hill, you have saadani which is African, of course, and Sydney, which is Chinese scene from China. In the Arabic language. There's a Chinese script as well Chinese Muslims, were using that particular script to write the Quran. Here we have

some not only masterpieces of calligraphy but also Islamic artwork Islamic decoration

Come on manuscripts is absolutely beautiful. Mind blowing, there's a lot of gold there. There's a lot of color. Similarly, this one is a beautiful manuscript of Islamic poetry, Rumi's poetry. Okay.

This is Rumi's Masnavi and also a Quran manuscript here written in a very huge script. This is MAHAK script, okay. And this particular manuscript is from the 12th century, okay, almost 800 years old, beautiful. And look at this masterpiece of Islamic artwork on bindings. bindings are also a very specific science Muslims had pioneered during the Middle Ages and beyond. And they were creating masterpieces of art

using bindings, right? So this is a binding of a book. And there are many more bindings, I want to show you very quickly that you were able to see

here we have some bindings, but these are European bindings, okay? But that particular masterpiece is from the Islamic world.

So if you come behind me,

the other side also has a beautiful

design. This is very oriental, when I say oriental Islamic, okay Eastern design of binding, okay, very Islamic. And then there are some

miniatures or artwork, paintings from the Mughal period. One in particular, I want to show you very quickly, this is a very true likeness of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, okay. who ruled in the 17th century, okay, to be precise, from 1605 to 1627. He was the Mughal emperor, one of the most powerful Mughal emperors in India. So, this was done by Hashem a painter, an artist called Hashem. His name is the Rockem Hashem, his name is the right next to the miniature of the Emperor.

So, why am I showing you all this? I want you to understand and realize how important this history is, how important this heritage is, how important this legacy is, we need to preserve it, we need to protect it, we need to learn about it, we need to know that it exists so that we can take inspiration. That's why I'm doing this video. Okay, so there are some this is a Turkish manuscript from the 16th century. Okay. And there you can see

the depiction of

one of the Ottoman mosques from Istanbul, okay. This is a history of Sultan, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, okay, so can Solomon the cannery and the depiction of one of the masterpieces of architect Xenon I'm assuming is there okay. And again, there are many beautiful miniatures

as you can see on my right here as well, this is this is an absolutely beautiful manuscript with the Quran made in Herat, currently Afghanistan. Again, you can see the artwork how beautiful it is, is absolutely mind blowing is so delicate, it's so carefully done that it just makes you you know, you get lost in it basically, when you look at it, there are so many colors there is gold used, there are different, you know, stones and different substances used to paint this particular manuscript of this artwork, okay.

So there is a lot we can see in this library that are there is

basically a selection of some European works on the other side. And there is a selection of some Asian art, for example, Japanese and Chinese art on the other side, but here in the middle, we have one of the best collections of the Islamic manuscripts in the world here in Ireland, Dublin, Chester Beatty library, and some of the oldest biblical manuscripts are also here. You can look at them in this very library, but today I wanted to share this with you so that you realize the treasure we have around the world and I will continue to share more and more stuff inshallah in the future. And there is so much to see and I will bring this to your attention as as if and when I come across it

does not come along and relisting brothers sisters, when you are in Dublin, in Ireland, you have to visit Chester beetelite Chester Beatty library. It's one of the best places in the world. When it comes to Islamic manuscripts Islamic