Over the course of ten centuries, Islam developed a rich written heritage that is visible in paintings, calligraphies, and manuscripts. The Islamic Manuscript Tradition explores this aspect of Islamic history with studies of the materials and tools of literate culture, including pens, inks, and papers, Qur'ans, Persian and Mughal illustrated manuscripts, Ottoman devotional works, cartographical manuscripts, printed books, and Islamic erotica. Seven essays present new scholarship on a wide range of topics including collection, miniaturization, illustrated devotional books, the history of the printing press in Islamic lands, and the presence and function of erotic paintings. This beautifully produced volume includes 111 color illustrations and provides a valuable new resource for students and scholars of Islamic art.
Christiane Gruber is Assistant Professor of Islamic Art at Indiana University Bloomington. She is editor (with Frederick S. Colby) of The Prophet's Ascension: Cross-Cultural Encounters with the Islamic Mi'raj Tales (IUP, 2009) and author of The Timurid Book of Ascension (Mi'rajnama): A Study of Text and Image in a Pan-Asian Context and The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A Persian-Sunni Prayer Manual.
Foreword by Oleg Grabar
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Islamic Book Arts in Indiana University Collections / Christiane Gruber
2. Ruth E. Adomeit: An Ambassador for Miniature Books / Janet Rauscher
3. Between Amulet and Devotion: Islamic Miniature Books in the Lilly Library / Heather Coffey
4. A Pious Cure-All: The Ottoman Illustrated Prayer Manual in the Lilly Library / Christiane Gruber
5. Ibrahim Müteferrika and the Age of the Printed Manuscript / Yasemin Gencer
6. An Ottoman View of the World: The Kitab Cihannüma and Its Cartographic Contexts / Emily Zoss
7. The Lilly Shamshir Khani in a Franco-Sikh Context: A Non-Islamic "Islamic" Manuscript / Brittany Payeur
8. An Amuletic Manuscript: Baraka and Nyama in a Sub-Saharan African Prayer Manual / Kitty Johnson
Bibliography
List of Contributors
