Exhibits
Sacred Script: Qur’anic Manuscripts from the 8th to 16th centuries in the Minassian Collection
Co-curated by Prof. Ian Straughn and Evelyn Ansell '11.5
Bopp Seminar Room, 3rd floor, John Hay Library, April – August, 2011
View virtual exhibit →
The flowering of Arabic calligraphy has its origins in the efforts of Muslim societies to preserve and disseminate the scriptural verses of the Qur’an. This exhibit offers a taste of the diversity, aesthetic merits and cultural production of manuscript artists as they engage with God’s word. The display charts the development of various calligraphic styles, techniques of illumination, and the historical relevance and reception of the Qur’an across the first millennium of Islamic culture.
This exhibit offers a window into two major themes regarding the production of Quranic manuscripts in the pre-modern Muslim world. In the first four cases the focus is on the aesthetic dimensions of these folios and documents their reception in the contemporary period as works of art. The second grouping of four cases examines the materiality of these works as manufactured objects and the many chapters of their object biographies as they moved from the workshop through the hands of various owners, be they individuals, institutions, and later collectors such as the Minassians. As these folios were bought, sold and traded, they became increasingly distant from the circumstances of their creation, both geographically and temporally; often, manuscripts were split up into individual signatures or folios or even single sheets and sold. Manuscripts were separated and scattered across the globe and one of the goals of this exhibit and the effort to digitize and create a database of this collection is to document that process of distribution and begin the work of reassembling these cultural masterpieces in new ways.
The Minassian collection itself contains more than 200 Quranic folios which come from some 40 distinct manuscripts. Together they represent nearly a millennium of development of Arabic calligraphy. This is the first time many of these folios have been available for public viewing and offer an important introduction to the literary and visual arts of the Muslim world. Visitors are encouraged to visit the companion website to this exhibit which contains more information about the collection and its study, as a well as the complete database of folios in the collection including high-resolution scans of these works.