M-85v. Introduction to Islamicate Manuscripts - Advance Reading List
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General Cultural Orientation
Bloom, Jonathan and Sheila Blair. Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. New York: TV Books, 2000.
Cook, Michael. The Koran: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. 3rd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Just read what you need.
Robinson, Neal. Islam: A Concise Introduction. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 1999.
Wright, Elaine. Islam: Faith, Art, Culture. London: Scala Publishers, 2009.
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Islamic Book Culture
Atiyeh, George N., ed., The Book in the Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995. See especially Franz Rosenthal, “‘Of Making Many Books There is no End’: The Classical Muslim View,” 33–55.
Bloom, Jonathan and Sheila Blair. Islamic Arts. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 1997. Chapters 2, 6, and 10.
“Islamic art. III. Arts of the book.” Dictionary of Art 16 (2009): 271–359.
Divided into specific sections for calligraphy, painted decoration, painted illustration, &c. Sections are also reprinted in alphabetical order in The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair, eds. 3 vols. See: “Book, arts of the” and “Bookbinding.”
Gruber, Christine J., ed. The Islamic Manuscript Tradition: Ten Centuries of Book Arts in Indiana University Collections. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2010. Chapter 1.
Hirschler, Konrad. The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural
History of Reading Practices. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. Chapter 1 and Conclusion especially.
Roper, Geoffrey. “The History of the Book in the Muslim World,” in Oxford Companion to the Book, edited by Michael Suarez and H.R. Woudhuysen, Section 38. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Reprinted in The Book: A Global History, edited by Michael Suarez and H.R. Woudhuysen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
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Islamic Manuscripts: Codicology, Materials and Techniques
Bloom, Jonathan. Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World. New York: Yale University Press, 2001.
Bosch, Gulnar, John Carswell, and Guy Petherbridge. Islamic Bindings and Bookmaking. Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1981. See pages 1–84 for an overview of manuscript production. Download here: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/islamic-studies
Deroche, François, ed. Islamic Codicology: An Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Script. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2006.
Ekhtiar, Maryam D. How to Read Islamic Calligraphy. New York: The MET, 2018.
Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Useful guide to own.
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Online Resources
Manuscripts of the Muslim World project:
Islamicate Manuscripts in the Free Library of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and other Philadelphia area repositories, cataloged and digitized. http://openn.library.upenn.edu/html/muslimworld_contents.html
Islamic Manuscript Basics:
Site using the MMW collection to introduce Islamic manuscript studies. https://kislakcenter.github.io/islamicmss/Mouse and Manuscript:
University of Leiden micro-lessons on specific qualities of Islamicate manuscripts.
https://mouse.digitalscholarship.nl/Glossary Terms for Islamic Manuscripts:
A useful guide to terminology for talking about Islamicate manuscripts, especially binding and materials.
https://www.islamicmanuscriptconservation.org/terminology.htmlDigital Ottoman Studies
Site that collections digital resources for working on Ottoman Studies.
https://www.digitalottomanstudies.com/University of Michigan Library Research Guides: Islamic Manuscript Studies
An invaluable resource, including listings of collections of Islamic manuscripts around the world, collections and catalogues online, and bibliography.
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/islamicmsstudies