IN ARABIC, Ahl al-Kitab is a term used by Muslims to include both Jews and Christians, to mean the People of the Book, those children of Abraham who received the Scriptures revealed to them by God before the composition of the Qur’an.

When the Moroccan British Society took the initiative to suggest an exhibition to the British Library, it was agreed that its scope should be broadened to include the Books of all three monotheistic faiths. Jews, Christians, and Muslims everywhere will want to visit this extraordinary show, to which the organisers have, late in the day, been able to add a single fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Library is more than willing to arrange free visits for small groups, making it ideal for parish groups and outings to visit with a learned specialist.

Although writing of the Qur’an may have begun in the Prophet’s lifetime (but, as this show makes clear, certainly not in Medina, as tradition claims), its composition, first as a prompt text for recitation, was probably first completed within a generation. The earliest known version dates from around 750 CE.

These texts were found, in 1972, at Sana’a in Yemen, and are still undergoing scrutiny and not being shown. Apparently, the suras indicate much the same degree of variety from the “standard” text that early codices of the Bible have. Transmitting the text of faith is a complex and confused process as an oral tradition locks into the written word. This exhibition traces the way in which the three monotheistic faiths have each done that. The comparison is fascinating.

What transpires is an exhibition that is a visually stunning and thought-provoking display that re-examines the scriptures and holy writings of each tradition, while critically re-assessing claims to commonality and difference. As the royal patrons (King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the Duke of Edinburgh) make clear, it is an attempt to offer a “constructive” dialogue in a world torn by division and by fear.

What transpires is an exhibition that is a visually stunning and thought-provoking display that re-examines the scriptures and holy writings of each tradition, while critically re-assessing claims to commonality and difference. As the royal patrons (King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the Duke of Edinburgh) make clear, it is an attempt to offer a “constructive” dialogue in a world torn by division and by fear.

It is an outstanding achievement to have been able to tell so much of this story from within the British Library’s own holdings; more than 130 manuscripts derive from the collection. But the story of how many of the items came to be in the national collection, before its inception in 1753, is not the purpose of the exhibition and is only mentioned in passing in the catalogue.

It is an outstanding achievement to have been able to tell so much of this story from within the British Library’s own holdings; more than 130 manuscripts derive from the collection. But the story of how many of the items came to be in the national collection, before its inception in 1753, is not the purpose of the exhibition and is only mentioned in passing in the catalogue.

Side by side, for instance, we see two of the earliest surviving Greek Bibles that are still used, with the Codex Vaticanus held in the Eternal City, to provide the textus receptus for the Western transmission of Christianity. One dates from fifth-century Alexandria. It was obtained for Charles I in 1627, while the more superior Codex Sinaiticus is thought to be even older.

The latter is open at the end of St Mark’s Gospel, where it clearly shows that the written text ends at Mark 16.8. Alongside is the earliest known Greek manuscript of the Four Gospels and the Acts of the Holy Apostles. Usually housed in Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Papyri come from Egypt and date to the third century. These pages attest to the early establishment of a “canon” of scripture in which the texts of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the Fourth Gospel achieved singular recognition.

The latter is open at the end of St Mark’s Gospel, where it clearly shows that the written text ends at Mark 16.8. Alongside is the earliest known Greek manuscript of the Four Gospels and the Acts of the Holy Apostles. Usually housed in Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Papyri come from Egypt and date to the third century. These pages attest to the early establishment of a “canon” of scripture in which the texts of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the Fourth Gospel achieved singular recognition.

A later Armenian codex (also in the British Library) shows that the ninth- or tenth-century scribe probably knew of the so-called “longer ending” to Mark’s text, but had decided against including it after first ruling the page in such a way as to accommodate it. These might appear to be small matters of scholarship, but the primacy of scripture within all three Abrahamic faiths makes proper such consideration for scholar and believer alike.

The exhibition also makes the point that, whereas for Muslims scripture was originally intended to be heard by the listener (as there were neither scribes nor likely readers in either Mecca or Medina during Muhammad’s lifetime, when even Mecca’s religious myths had all disappeared), Judaism and Christianity came into existence in societies with a high degree of literacy, and readily absorbed a written tradition, so that our respective use of the Book differs.

That one faith informed another and its transmission is evident from the syncretic forces at work across the Mediterranean and in the countries of the near East. So a ninth- or tenth-century Egyptian copy of the Ketuvim (The Writings) in the First Gaster Bible is decorated with near identical foliage, finials, and curlicues to those found in contemporary illuminated Qur’ans.

Similarities between the abstracted decoration characteristic of Anglo-Saxon art and Islamic motifs have long been noted; seeing such books together reinforces the argument. Two depictions of King David playing his harp in two French manuscripts of the late 14th century are identically composed, even though one is in a Jewish book and the other in a Christian psalter.

ALL FAITHS share a concept of pilgrimage, the ritual and value of the believer’s making a journey to a place that is physically identifiable with God’s recorded activity. For each, Jerusalem remains central, and, at the heart of the exhibition, there are little pocket maps laid out for just such a journey. In the last decade of his life, the St Albans monk Matthew Paris (d. 1259) produced a veritable Baedeker, with an illustrated itinerary of the pilgrim route from London to the Holy City, then held by the Saracens.

Since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, the site of the Temple there (destroyed in 70 CE) has again become a magnet for Jews on pilgrimage, so that it is a sadness that the modern-day Temple guard now prevent all but Muslims visiting the Dome of the Rock itself. Illustrations produced by an Italian at Casale Monferrato in 1598 for the Jewish market show what visitors and pilgrims might expect among the ruins.

Since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, the site of the Temple there (destroyed in 70 CE) has again become a magnet for Jews on pilgrimage, so that it is a sadness that the modern-day Temple guard now prevent all but Muslims visiting the Dome of the Rock itself. Illustrations produced by an Italian at Casale Monferrato in 1598 for the Jewish market show what visitors and pilgrims might expect among the ruins.

When the monk Simeon was commissioned to produce an illustrated Gospel Book by Tsar Ivan Alexander in 1355/56, he produced a manuscript that contains a sequence of no fewer than 366 illustrations, all of them undertaken in the Byzantine style. He claimed that this work, long celebrated as the finest surviving example of medieval Bulgarian art, was undertaken “not simply for the outward beauty of its decoration . . . [but] primarily to express the inner Divine Word, the revelation and the sacred vision”.

He not only compared the translation of the Bible into “our own Slavonic language” to the discovery of the True Cross by the Empress Helena, but painted in a style to advance the claims of Bulgaria to imperial power.

These delightfully illuminated Gospels are open at a folio that depicts the Last Judgement. Christ is enthroned with the Virgin Mary at his right, and John the Baptist at his left, with the Apostles ranged on either side of him. Below the realms of heaven, angels greet the departed; and, in a little wood, Tsar Alexander Ivan himself intercedes with the Virgin Mary. His soul is about to be weighed in the scales held by an attendant angel. Behind, fire engulfs the luckless. Not only is this Gospel Book remarkable, for its wealth of decoration; its survival is, too.

Not all such books have been as fortunate, as this exhibition shows. A single leaf from a Greek text, in the so-called Cotton Genesis, probably dating to Cairo in the fifth or sixth century, has been shrivelled by a fire in 1731 to little more than half its size, making it difficult to see Abraham as he rushes impetuously to greet the three angelic visitors.

This exhibition was originally arranged under the working title “Sacred: Discover What We Share”, which emphasises an aspect that many visitors from all three faiths may find surprising, if not disturbing. But the evidence is undeniable; and the sheer quality of the iconic reproduction across all traditions in this truly momentous display is remarkable.

This exhibition was originally arranged under the working title “Sacred: Discover What We Share”, which emphasises an aspect that many visitors from all three faiths may find surprising, if not disturbing. But the evidence is undeniable; and the sheer quality of the iconic reproduction across all traditions in this truly momentous display is remarkable.

My only quibble (a major one) is why the organisers had chosen to rely upon the deficient text of the New International Version of the Bible for English translations. When so much of the exhibition hinges on the faithful transmission of Text, it seems perverse to make use of a version that does not enjoy scholarly support or recognition.

“Sacred” is at the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1, until 23 September. Phone 0870 444 1500.

www.bl.uk