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Win a Dream Holiday to India
In association with 
To coincide with the Muraqqa' exhibition the Library and Indian Dreams are offering you the chance to win a fabulous holiday for two to India. The competition will run until 3 October 2010 and may be entered online or in person at the Library. For more details please click here.
Conservation of Japanese Scrolls
Supported by The Sumitomo Foundation
The Chester Beatty Library is delighted to announce a grant from The Sumitomo Foundation, Tokyo, to conserve one of the most important Japanese hand scrolls in the Library’s collections – an early 17th-century version of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter in a set of two picture scrolls. For more information please click here.
New short film:
The Cry of Pamoun, the Ox: A lament across the centuries
The Library has created a short film to highlight an ancient song on the suffering of animals. Composed originally around A.D. 300 by Thom, a lyricist and follower of the Manichaean religion, the Chester Beatty copy of this song dates to around A.D.400 and is part of the largest book to survive from the ancient world, the Manichaean Psalm book. Thom’s song brings us face to face with the suffering of the ox from the ox’s point of view. The cry of ‘What have the generations done to me?’ should still be heard today. The film can be viewed on an interactive kiosk at the Library.
New Acquisition
The Library has acquired a limited edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses with illustrations by Henri Matisse. This edition appeared in 1935 under the imprint of the Limited Edition Club founded by the New York-based publisher George Macy in 1929.
Recent Publication
Islam: Faith, Art, Culture
Dr Elaine Wright, Curator of the Islamic Collections at the Library presents an authoritative introduction to the Islamic religion, covering both orthodox faith and popular piety, including the historical context of the divine revelation to the Prophet Muhammad, the contents of the Qur'an, Islamic calligraphy, the practice of the faith, the many prophets and other figures revered by Muslims, and Islamic mysticism. The reader is introduced to these aspects of the faith through the rich heritage of the Islamic book, and as such this volume presents a feast of matchless illustration and illumination, including magnificent examples of calligraphy, the art most highly revered in Islam.
The manuscripts (hand-written books) chosen to illustrate the text span the period from the 9th century to the early 20th although most were produced between about the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. They derive primarily from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and India, but also include examples from Spain, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and China.
The manuscripts, and the concepts they deal with, are as relevant today as they were when they were produced, and as such they serve as ideal illustrations for this general introduction to Islam.
Price €27.00, on sale in the Library's shop.
Further information on Table of Contents and Chapter Excerpts can be found here.
For further information on the Library's Islamic Collections, please click here.
For news of future temporary exhibitions at the Library, please click here.