NBC NEWS
By Stephany Bai
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| Quran from Iran, during the Safavid period, and created January 15, 1516. Hadiye Cangokce / Istanbul, Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts |
WASHINGTON, DC---When Massumeh Farhad traveled to Istanbul in 2010 to visit the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, she was "completely staggered" by its Quran exhibition. Farhad, who is the chief curator at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and a curator of Islamic art, told NBC News that she made the initial trip for her own interest, but was so impressed with the exhibition that she urged the gallery's director, Julian Raby, to see it for himself. Although museum renovations delayed plans for the traveling exhibition, Washington, D.C., will showcase the Quran — the holy text of the Islamic religion — in the first-of-its-kind exhibition at the Smithsonian this October. [
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| Quran folio from the Abbasid period in the 10th century. Hadiye Cangokce / Istanbul, Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts |
