Special Installation in the Art of the Islamic Worlds Galleries: “Sea of Ink, Forest of Pens: The Art of the Qurʾan in the Hossein Afshar Collection”
HOUSTON—August 13, 2025—A special installation is on view through June 2026 in the MFAH Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds. Celebrating the art of the Qurʾan and publication of the book Sea of Ink, Forest of Pens: The Art of the Qurʾan in the Hossein Afshar Collection, the presentation highlights a dozen masterworks that span from the 7th through the 19th centuries, shedding light on the production of deluxe Qurʾan manuscripts from across Islamic lands over more than 1,200 years. Two contemporary works from the Museum’s permanent collection respond to the Qurʾan in unique ways. (On view through June 28, 2026)
The Qurʾan is the Arabic-language earthly scripture of God’s divine, eternal speech. Calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, enhances the spiritual, philosophical, and semantic significance of the Qurʾan by enriching it through ornamentation. Highlights from the works on view include:
- Folio from a Qurʾan Manuscript Written in Hijazi script style on parchment, this mid-7th century folio from Saudi Arabia is from one of the earliest copies of the Qurʾan, of which only pages and fragments survive.
- A beautifully illuminated Qurʾan manuscript from Iran, dated AH 1260/1844-45, signed and dated by the calligrapher Mir ʿAbd al-Karim Muhammad Sadiq al-Husayni al-Yazdi.
- Pouran Jinchi’s Tajvid Red 2 (2009) This contemporary ink-on-paper work interprets one of the most important aspects of the Qurʾan, its tajvid, or proper recitation, highlighting the rhythmic and performative quality of the calligraphic act, and shifting the viewer’s attention from a word’s meaning to its sound.
- Haji Noor Deen’s Ayat al-Kursi Scroll (2015) Master calligrapher Haji Noor Deen combines the discipline of the Islamic calligraphic reed pen with the flowing style of the Chinese calligraphic brush in Sini Arabic script to copy the Ayat al-Kursi, or Throne Verse, a widely recited and inscribed Qurʾanic verse believed to offer protection over homes and families.
About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Spanning 14 acres in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the main campus comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present collections of American and European decorative arts.
The MFAH is also home to the Glassell School of Art, with its Core Residency Program and Junior and Studio schools; and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. Additional resources include a repertory cinema; two significant research libraries, the Hirsch Library and the Powell Library and Study Center at Bayou Bend; public archives; a conservation studio; and an off-site storage facility. www.mfah.org
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