ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has gifted a contemporary Islamic sculpture by renowned artist Amin Gulgee to the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, its first work to be displayed in the prestigious Center’s permanent collection, the press information department said on Thursday.
OCIS is among the world’s leading institutions for the multidisciplinary study of Islamic civilizations, culture and contemporary Muslim societies. The Center’s collections and exhibitions attract scholars, diplomats and visitors from across the Muslim world, making Pakistan’s formal artistic presence symbolically and academically important.
Gulgee’s sculptural work, built around the fifth verse of Surah Al-Alaq and rendered in deconstructed Naskh calligraphy, draws on one of the earliest Qur’anic revelations — a passage associated with the primacy of knowledge in Islamic tradition — and uses Naskh, the classical script that became the standard for Qur’anic manuscripts across the Muslim world.
The combination places a foundational Islamic theme within a contemporary artistic form that has gained international recognition.
“To have Pakistan’s artistic voice now resonate within these walls is a matter of immense national pride. This gift is not a one-time event, but the beginning of a lasting relationship between Pakistan and the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies,” Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, said at the presentation ceremony according to a statement released by the press information department.
Faisal added that the work, created by Gulgee for his Zero Gravity II series, embodied “the Pakistani spirit of creativity rooted in faith” and would help foster deeper partnerships in research, scholarship and cultural dialogue. He expressed hope that the sculpture would inspire visitors to remember that the pursuit of knowledge “is a sacred journey” beginning with the divine command Iqra — Read.
OCIS Director Dr. Farhan Nizami thanked the government and people of Pakistan for the gift, saying he looked forward to strengthening cooperation with the Center.
