LONDON, United Kingdom: A collection of Islamic art featuring precious objects from the ninth to the 19th centuries is set to be opened in London on Thursday.

The collection of 165 objects, shown to the press Monday, comes from regions as far apart as India to the east and Morocco to the West, depicts the general outlines of Islamic art's refinement and diversity over 10 centuries.

Persian miniatures, pages of calligraphy from the holy Koran, ceramics, medical tools and musical instruments show different aspects of Islamic culture.

Among the rarest pieces was an 11th-century manuscript of "Canon of Medicine" belonging to Ibn Sina or Avicenna, the great scientist. The book was the standard medical textbook in the Middle East and Europe before modern times.

Also on show was a page from the blue Koran, which organisers said was one of the rarest and most luxurious Koran manuscripts ever produced, created for the Fatimid caliphs in the 10th century.

The exhibition will remain open until the end of August and will be displayed at the Louvre in Paris between October 2007 and January 2008.

From mid-February 2008 to April 2008 it will be at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.

It will go on display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, when the museum opens in 2010.