Muslim Museum Launched Online

Muslim Heritage Consulting (MHC) has launched the world’s first image library dedicated to the history of the Muslim world, aptly named www.MuslimHeritageImages.com.

The library includes more than 5,000 images, including manuscripts dating back as far as the 10th century and contemporary pictures of people, architecture and important artefacts from museums around the world.

"Our aim was to get these artefacts and manuscripts out of the dusty archives of the museums, make them accessible to the public and tell the story," said Nosheen Ladha, Image Collection Manager at MHC based in Dubai.

Ladha said 3D renditions and videos of Al Jaziri’s Elephant Clock would be uploaded in the next few days.

MHC previously helped Ibn Battuta Mall arrange its displays of Muslim heritage and history.

"While doing research for projects like the Ibn Battuta Mall we realised that it is really hard to locate reliable data on Muslim history," said Samia A. Khan, Image Sales Manager at MHC.

"There was a real shortage of images. One of the biggest challenges for museums, publishers and production companies has been trying to relate these stories from the past using imagery which is extremely difficult to find.

"Muslim Heritage Images has made it accessible using a simple online format"

It took three years to collect the images, said Khan.

"We went to four museums in Turkey, as well as working alongside 50 academics covering Turkey, France, Spain and the UK. But there is still a lot out there. We are about to finalise negotiations with an Indian museum."

Partnered with the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) in the UK, the library is an ambitious project that aims to raise global awareness on the importance and relevance of Muslim heritage and its mostly unaccounted contribution to the current world civilisation.

The Western Debt

In a recent speech at Oxford University, Prince Charles said: "If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic world.

"It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straight-jacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished.

"But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history."