The Catalogue of the exhibition “Islam in the Photo Collection of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society” was published in English with the assistance of Ibn Sina Foundation, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), the State Museum of the History of Religion and thr Saint Petersburg Museum of the Islamic Culture. The Russian version of the catalogue had been published previously in 2023.
The catalogue was prepared by the staff of the Laboratory “The International Centre of Islamic Studies” of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, exactly by the Soviet and Russian specialist in the area of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a Candidate of historical sciences, a professor and the chief of the Laboratory Efim Anatolievich Rezwan and a Candidate of historical sciences, the senior research scholar of the Laboratory Anna Yurievna Kudryavtseva.
Soon after it emergence the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society became one of the most active collectors of photos dedicated to the Middle East, including photos of 1850-1870. This collection that is now being kept in the State Museum of the History of Religion is a subject of interest for specialists on the history of Islam. Photos of sanctities and holy sites worshipped both by Muslims, Christian and Jews attract a special attention. As well, photos depicting an ordinary life of Muslims in Palestine, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia are also very important. Each of the thematic groups of photos is provided by parallels from the Quran and references to texts related to the Russian culture, as well as by necessary commentaries.
