The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qurʾanic Manuscripts from the Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

This volume comprises a selection of papers delivered at the symposium “The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qurʾanic Manuscripts” held at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery from 1 to 3 December 2016 and organized in conjunction with the exhibition The Art of the Qurʾan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. Authors investigate the materiality of luxury Qurʾans, from the lavish use of costly materials such as gold and parchment, the development of special scripts, and intricate illuminated designs to the meticulously tooled bindings. In addition to examining the physical features of Qurʾanic volumes, the authors put the manuscripts in their artistic, historic, and religious contexts to understand more fully the transformation of these works into potent symbols of piety and political and religious authority and into instruments of legitimacy. Over the centuries, many of the Qurʾans were offered as diplomatic gifts or taken as booty and endowed to mosques, tombs, and other religious complexes to perpetuate and transmit their exceptional baraka (divine blessing). As the Qurʾans changed ownership, they also acquired a complex and layered afterlife, which has further enriched their identity well into the present.