Article: The temporary unbinding of one of the greatest of all Mughal manuscripts allows Louise Nicholson to luxuriate in the art of a liberal, tolerant Islamic court.(New York News)

Exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum are not intended to be political; their remit is simply to display some of the world's greatest works of art. Yet a current show there (until 29 January 2006), on one of the grandest of all illuminated manuscripts, does both. This copy of the Khamsa by the poet Amir Khusrau, produced in Lahore for the Mughal emperor Akbar in the late 1590s, really does catch one's breath with its beauty. But it also reminds us in timely fashion how important the Islamic cities from India to Spain were as centres of enlightened and liberal patronage and as exemplars of religious and cultural tolerance.

Everything about the manuscript endorses ...

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