Golden Quran and translated Arabic manuscripts

One of the recipients of Auckland Library Heritage Trust's Researcher in Residence award for 2014/2015 was Dr Zain Ali. Dr Ali focused his research on a golden Quran that Henry Shaw donated to the library and also some manuscripts of poems in Arabic.

The aim of the Researcher in Residence scholarship is to assist with scholarly research and promotion of materials held in Sir George Grey Special Collections. These aims were certainly achieved this year with some Arabic manuscripts being translated into English for the first time.

The fruits of this research were presented in a talk at the library on the evening of 28 May this year. The video of the talk is now up online and you can watch the talk that Dr Ali and translator Hoda Khaled Fahmy gave below:



Do have a look at Auckland Libraries YouTube Channel; there is some great content there. Recently added videos include some of our family history talks through to the talking portraits that were down at Queen's Wharf on the waterfront over Auckland Anniversary Weekend.

This past weekend Dr Ali, Hoda Fahmy and Manuscripts Librarian Kate de Courcy were interviewed on Radio New Zealand's Spiritual Outlook show. Dr Ali mentions in the interview on Spiritual Outlook that they in the process of assessing the manuscripts with a view to finding a publisher for the translations, which is very exciting news. Do click through to the article as it has some great photos of the Quran and the manuscripts.



Author: Andrew Henry

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