Lecture by Prof. Sheila Blair
We are excited to invite you to a special public lecture at Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, delivered by renowned scholar Prof. Sheila Blair!
🗓️ Event: The Many Manuscripts of the Qur'an, Their Settings and Their Uses
🎤 Speaker: Prof. Sheila Blair
📅 Date: 16 October 2024
⏰ Time: 6:15 PM – 7:15 PM (Reception from 5:30 PM)
📍 Location: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 22A Old Court Place, W8 4PL, London
Join us as Prof. Blair explores the fascinating world of Qur'anic manuscripts, uncovering their historical significance and artistic beauty.
The Many Manuscripts of the Qurʾan, Their Settings and Their Uses
By Prof. Sheila Blair
The Qurʾan, traditionally revered as the literal word of God, was revealed orally, but soon committed to writing. Both oral and written versions have assumed a remarkably fixed form for nearly a millennium and a half, especially since the decision by the Umayyad caliph ʿUthman c. 650 CE to unify the textual skeleton (rasm). Despite this textual uniformity, manuscripts of the Qurʾan vary widely in size, materials, format, layout, script, decoration and other features. This richly illustrated presentation surveys some of these many manuscripts, the settings for which they were made, and the multiple ways they were used, from recitation and reading in mosques and tombs to a pious endowment, an object of display and performance, a sign of conquest, a souvenir of war booty, an apotropaic accouterment, and a museum masterpiece.
Sheila Blair retired several years ago from the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair in Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, positions she shared with her husband and colleague Jonathan Bloom.
Separately and together, they have written or edited a score of books and hundreds of articles on all aspects of Islamic art.
Her special interests are the uses of writing and the arts of the Mongol period, especially architecture and manuscripts.
Among many other works, she is the author of the award-winning Islamic Calligraphy (2006), the chapters “Glorifying God’s Work: Manuscripts of the Qur’an” and “Inscribing God’s Word: Qur’anic Texts on Architecture, Objects and Other Solid Supports” in the Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies (2020) and “Sultan Öljeitü’s Baghdad Qurʾan: A Life History,” in The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts (2022).
