Three Faiths: Books and Manuscripts at the NY Public Library

18th-century Ethiopian illustration of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark

Jews, Christians, Muslims, with a long history of conflicts, share a common ancestry, Abraham, and share the same fundamental Abrahamic values. An exhibition of books and manuscripts belonging to all three faiths was organized at the New York Public Library. You'll find there the Gutenberg Bible, its King James translation from 1611, the first Koran published in English in 1649. There are there great treasures: a 13th century Pentateuch from Jerusalem, a Bible found in a British monastery that was sacked by the Vikings in 917, a printing of the Gospels in the African language Grebo, from the 19th century, 16th-century Turkish and Persian manuscripts in which Muhammad is pictured with other prophets, his face a blank white space in obeisance to the prohibition against his portrait.

Muhammad Leading the Other Prophets from a 16th-century Turkish manuscript

There is an article in today's NY Times about this exhibition.

(Psalter)