Isu Hangat: Sacred texts at the British Library

An exhibition of early Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts opens at the British Library, London. Friday 27 April.

The Haggadah contains the story of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, led by Moses, and their liberation from slavery under the Pharaoh.
It is used at Passover and was the favourite Hebrew text for illustration.
This heavily gilded copy was produced in Christian Spain in about 1320.

Holkham Bible Picture Book
In the Middle Ages picture books illustrating the stories of the Bible were made as teaching aids for the nobility.
This Bible was made for a Dominican Friar, probably in London, during the first half of the 14th Century.


Sultan Baybars' Koran
One of the finest of all Koran manuscripts, written in gold in seven folio volumes.
It took three years to produce (1304–06) in Cairo for the Mamluk Sultan Baybars II.

Judeo-Persian manuscript
This illustration shows priests blowing ram horns and encircling Jericho.
It is a poetical reworking of the stories in the book of Joshua, Ruth and Samuel.
It was produced in Iran in the 17th Century.


Silos Apocalypse
This shows the seven-headed dragon being attacked with spears by St Michael and his angels.
Produced at Silos in the late 11th and early 12th Century, when part of Spain was under Moorish rule.

Koran from Spain (Andalucia)
An elaborately decorated Koran, from the 13th Century.
Not many Korans produced in Moorish Spain survived the Christian reconquest in 1492.

Sanaa Pentateuch
This is a Hebrew Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) copied at Sanaa in the Yemen in 1469.
It shows the strong influence of Islamic art in its decoration.


Ethiopian Octateuch
Dating from the late 17th Century, this illustration shows the Annunciation of Zacharias. It shows the Temple in Jerusalem as if it were a circular, Ethiopian church.
Inside, both the angel and Zacharias hold staves with crosses. An Octateuch is a collection of the first eight books of the Old Testament.

Koran from China
This Koran from China shows some unusual features in its decoration deriving from local artistic motifs.
This 17th-Century manuscript shows what appears to be a Chinese lantern framing the text.

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