The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts

Symposium

Thursday–Saturday, December 1–3
Turkish Embassy and Ripley Center Lecture Hall

Costly paper, finely tooled bindings, special scripts, and intricate illumination are among the characteristics that distinguish the manuscripts in The Art of the Qur’an. In this symposium, investigate the materiality of luxury copies of the Qur’an made between the eighth and the seventeenth century from Herat to Istanbul. Also learn about the complex and layered significance these Qur’ans acquired as they changed ownership. Speakers examine the volumes in their historical, cultural, and artistic contexts and discuss their use as potent symbols of piety and political and religious authority. The symposium is organized in conjunction with the exhibition The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and is made possible in part through the support of the El-Hibri Foundation.

Program

Thursday, December 1, 6:30–7:30 pm

Turkish Embassy
Keynote Lecture: Let’s Start with the Questions: Jane McAuliffe, Library of Congress

Friday, December 2, 9:15 am–4:30 pm

Ripley Center Lecture Hall

9:15–9:45am: Coffee

9:45–10 am: Welcome and introduction

10–11:20 am: Presentations

Astâr al-awwâlîn: The Qur’anic Handwritten Tradition and its Beginnings
François Déroche, Collège de France, Paris
The Imperial Ghaznavid Qur’ans: A Case of Collaborative Productions
Alya Karame, University of Edinburgh

11:20–11:40 am: Break

11:40 am–1 pm: Presentations

Grandeur and Gold: Qur’an Codices for Sultan Uljaytu and the Ilkhanid Court
Sheila Blair, Boston College
Mamluk Qur’ans: Opulence and Splendor of the Islamic Book
Alison Ohta, Royal Asiatic Society, London

1–2:30 pm: Lunch break

2:30–4:30 pm: Presentations

A Luxury Market? Yāqūt al-Musta‘ṣimī’s Qur’ans
Nourane ben Azzouna, University of Strasbourg
Rendering the Word of God: The Art of Qur’ans with Interlinear Persian and Turkish Translations
Ünver Rüstem, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
A Sixteenth-Century Shiraz Masterpiece: Chester Beatty’s Ruzbihan Qur’an
Elaine Wright, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Saturday, December 3, 9:30 am–12:30 pm

Ripley Center Lecture Hall

9:30-10 am: Coffee

10am-12pm: Presentations

- Rise of the En’am-I serif: Investigating the Production of Selections of Suras in the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
  Simon Rettig, Freer|Sackler
- Sight and Sound in Early Qur’ans
  Alain George, University of Edinburgh
- The Qur’anic Soundscape of Mimar Sinan’s Mosques
  Nina Ergin, Koç University, Istanbul

12-12:30 pm: concluding remarks, Julian Raby Freer|Sackler

The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts is made possible in part through the support of the El-Hibri Foundation.

Program offered in conjunction with The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Turkey.

We would like to thank the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC for hosting the keynote lecture.