On the 21 of November the opening ceremony of the exhibition “The World of Islam in the Photo Collection of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society” took place at the Islamic Culture Museum in Kazan. The exhibition was held with the assistance of Ibn Sina Foundation.
On behalf of Ibn Sina Foundation it’s President Hamid Hadavimoghaddam greeted the respected guests. In his welcome speech he pointed out that “Each earth where the Divine Name is being pronounced is sacred, but there are some special places that have been mentioned in the Sacral Books. Thus, Palestine and Syria are the sacral territories for all the three Abrahamic religions”.
“The exhibition itself includes the series of photos of these sacred places that have a special significance for Muslims whose life is reflected on these photos that have been made by Orthodox Christians. And this is a bright example of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue”, – he said.
The curator of the exhibition is the chief of the Laboratory “The International Centre of Islamic Studies” of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Efim Anatolievich Rezwan who is an historian, an ethnographist and a specialist on the Holy Quran. He spoke on the concept of the exhibition that included photos from the archive of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in the collection of the Museum of the History of Religions (Saint Petersburg). Being a specialist in the area of Islamic studies Mr. Rezwan provided his expert commentary with verses from the Russian poetry of its Golden and Silver eras. The exhibition was initially opened at the Museum of the History of Religions and then transferred to Kazan and other cities in Russia and abroad.
The exhibition was organized and held by Ibn Sina Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Kazan Kremlin Museum, the Islamic Culture Museum, the Museum of the History of Religion and Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The first deputy Mufty of the Republic of Tatarstan and the imam-khatib of Kul Sharif Mosque Ilfat-hazrat Khasanov, the General Consul of the Islamic Republic of Iran Dawoud Mirzakhani, the chief of the Department of Interaction with Public Organizations of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan Airat Shamilevich Faizrakhmanov, the director of the State Museum of the History of Religion Ekaterina Alexandrovna Teryukova, the chief of the Tatarstan Department of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society Kuzma Nikolaevich Morozov and the deputy director of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve Zhanna Vladimirovna Ushakova also delivered their speeches at the opening ceremony.
The first excursion for the exhibition’s visitors was organized by I.I. Nizamiev and A.A. Lukashev.
The photos are provided by the press service of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve
The Photographer: Kamilla Sultanova
