Love and devotion: from Persia and beyond is an online exhibit that celebrates the beauty of Persian manuscripts and the stories of human and divine love told through their pages from the early 11th century on.
Love and devotion showcases a rich selection of manuscripts from the world-renowned collection of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford, along with rare works from the State Library of Victoria and other Australian collections.
The exhibit is divided into four main topics: Persian poets, Stories and poems, Persia’s cultural sphere, and European interactions.
- Persian poets includes the life and the work of significant poets like Nizami, Attar, Firdausi, Hafiz, Jami and many more.
- Stories and poems retells epic stories and masterpieces that have been told over the centuries in the Persian world.
- Persia’s cultural sphere explains how Persia’s strong culture of poetry and the book arts was adopted by Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India.
- European interactions discovesr how Persian poetry intersected with European culture.
Multimedia section includes audio recordings of Persian poetry readings and video recordings of past conferences that address the theme of Love and devotion.
Education provides curriculum- based guides for exploring Persian stories and culture in the classroom., in addition to activities and resources.
Additional features are available, such as interactive map, image gallery, how to read a manuscript and glossary.