Dutch Islamic exhibition opens in Gaza

Copies of Islamic manuscripts held by a Dutch university went on show in the Gaza Strip yesterday.

The “Book of Islamic Art” exhibition was opened by the Netherlands Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority in the Museum hotel west of Gaza City. More than 40 copies of Islamic manuscripts located at Leiden University, Netherlands, are on show.

Dutch representative Peter Mollema told the Anadolu Agency: “The objective of this exhibition is the involvement and communication between the Dutch and the Palestinians, through bringing what we have of Islamic manuscripts in the Netherlands into the Gaza Strip.”

“What are available here are copies and photographs of original manuscripts on the history of Islamic art, including verses from the Quran and the history of Islamic art,” Mollema added.

“We have something mutual that we must share, and this is Islamic art.”

He also added, “This exhibition was held in the West Bank earlier and now we have come to share it with the residents of the Gaza Strip.”

The exhibition included photographs of original manuscripts, ranging from Quranic verses, graphics and decorations, and scientific manuscripts.

Leiden University said in a statement that they have more than a thousand Middle Eastern manuscripts, dating back to the Mamluk era.

Images by MEMO photographer Mohammed Asad.