The Forgotten Qur'ans of the Eastern Islamic World: Manuscripts of the Ghaznavid and Ghurid Dynasties, 11th-12th Centuries CE / Alya Karame.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Karame, Alya, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The first in-depth examination of the earliest corpus of Qurans copied at the beginning of a transformative phase in the history of Quran production, at the eastern frontiers of the Islamic world Presents the first detailed study of a group of Qurans produced under the Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynastiesOffers the first study towards understanding a transformative phase in the history of Quran productionExamines Qurans at the eastern frontiers within the fluid transregional landscape in which their aesthetic was shaped, reclaiming peripheries as centres of cultural productionNarrates the conception, use and role of the Quran manuscript across time by contextualising them, setting out a new approach, beyond codicology, for the study of manuscriptsAttributes mostly dispersed manuscripts of unknown date and origin to the medieval eastern Islamic world (950s-1250s CE) and lists them in an appendix The Ghaznavid and Ghurid Qurans (c. eleventhTwelfth centuries CE), studied for the first time as a corpus, inform of how the Quran was copied at the beginning of a transformative period in the history of its production when paper, new scripts and the vertical format were adopted. As the book illustrates the ways in which local visual trends were shaped out of diachronic and synchronic multidirectional movement within a medieval landscape that was continuously in flux, it shifts the focus to the eastern frontiers of the Islamic world, reclaiming them as centres of cultural production. It is by contextualising the Qurans materiality within the religious, social and political context that the book rehumanises them offering an understanding of how the manuscripts were conceived, produced and used, up until our day.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Maps

Acknowledgements

Notes for Readers

Abbreviations

Series Editors Foreword

Preface

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 The First Ghaznavid Qurans: Alliance of Power and Religion

CHAPTER 2 A Sultans Quran: A New Genre

CHAPTER 3 A Royal Ghaznavid Atelier

CHAPTER 4 Ghurid Qurans in a Connected World

CHAPTER 5 A Polycentric Landscape in Khurasan and Beyond

CONCLUSION From Codicology to Cultural Materiality

Appendix I: Script and Layout Studies of the Earliest Ghaznavid Qurans

Appendix II: List of Qurans from the Medieval Eastern Islamic World, c. 9501250 CE

Glossary

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 14 2026)

ISBN:

1-3995-1243-9

9781399512435