Khamseen Collections
Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is a free and open-access online platform of digital resources to aid the teaching of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. Khamseen has partnered with the Edinburgh University Library to produce a series of presentations on a selection of Islamic manuscripts and rare books held in its Heritage Collections.
This collection of talks will grow over time, beginning first with presentations of Rashid al-Din’s famous Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh and a miniature Qur’an printed in Glasgow.
Further information about the University of Edinburgh’s Heritage Collections and its Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia is available here.
View the University of Edinburgh Khamseen collection
The Bryce Miniature Qur’an and its travel across the globe (RB.S.4656)
Dr Mira Xenia focuses on a miniature Qur’an executed in golden ink and housed in a metal locket, now held in the Heritage Collections of the University of Edinburgh. This Qur’an may look like a manuscript, but it is an early printed book. It reproduces a handwritten, 17th-century Ottoman copy of the Qur’an through the modern technology of photolithography. This diminutive printed Qur’an was sold across the globe at the beginning of the 20th century, with copies circulating in the Arab world, Iran, South Asia, and Indonesia. Moreover, Muslim soldiers who fought in World War I carried these small copies of Islam’s holy book on their bodies as these were believed to bear apotropaic qualities. While treasured in the Islamic world, this talk shows that these miniature Qur’ans were printed by David Bryce around 1900 CE in Glasgow– that is, in close proximity to Edinburgh, where the copy presented here is kept today.
This video was made in collaboration with Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online
Further information on this manuscript and high resolution images can be found in its online catalogue entry: RB.S.4656
View ‘The Bryce Miniature Qur’an and its travel across the globe’ directly on Media Hopper Create
Images of the Prophet Muhammad in Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh (Or MS 20)
Rashid al-Din’s Jami‘ al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) is considered the first universal history ever written. Edinburgh University’s Heritage Collections preserves an exceedingly rare and precious illustrated manuscript copy of this text made in 1307–14 CE and thus dating to the author’s time. Its cycle of paintings depicting the Prophet Muhammad is especially important, as they are among the earliest extant in the history of Islamic book arts and they reveal an interest in narrating and commemorating Muhammad’s life and deeds in visual form.
This hands-on presentation by Prof Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) of the manuscript focuses on these images to explain their religious motifs and contextual meanings while also addressing questions of image preservation and destruction.
This video was made in collaboration with Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online
Further information on this manuscript and high resolution images can be found in its online catalogue entry: Or MS 20
The provenance of the Edinburgh Fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh (Or MS 20)
Dr Lucy Deacon explores the history of the substantial fragment of Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, by Rashīd al-Dīn (vizier to the Ilkhanids), held by the University of Edinburgh’s Heritage Collections (Or Ms 20). Dating to the early 14th century CE, it is a richly illustrated work of world history. Highly likely to have been produced in Rashīd al-Dīn’s scriptorium in Tabriz, it is one of only four extant fragments of this work that date to the author’s lifetime. Comprising 151 folios, Or Ms 20 is the largest surviving fragment of the Arabic rendition of the work dating to this period. The seventy paintings contained within it are believed to be among the best-preserved examples from Rashīd al-Dīn’s atelier. So, how did it come to be in Edinburgh?
This video was made in collaboration with Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online
Further information on this manuscript and high resolution images can be found in its online catalogue entry: Or MS 20
These videos by the Centre for Research Collection at the University of Edinburgh are available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives 4.0 licence.
Header Image: Screenshot of title card from videos
