This thesis aims to a achieve something that has not been done before- to identify the style of illuminated Safavid Qur'ans. The first serious attempt to look critically at a wide spectrum of Qur'an manuscripts dates from the famous World of Islam festival held in London in 1976, with its many exhibitions. Since then, hardly anything has been published specifically on Safavid Qur'äns. The major subsequent study on illuminated Qur'äns is that carried out by David James in his book entitled Qur'äns of the Mamluks (1988). Most writings on Safavid Qur'äns have been in bits and pieces. The thin and ambiguous distinction between the style of 16th-17th century Ottoman, Mughal and Safavid Qur'änic illumination adds to the tendency that scholars have evinced to skim over the problems. Many Qur'äns are without provenance; indeed, only a few have a clear provenance. Discussion thus tends to linger on secure by dated or provenanced examples of Qur'äns which possess full documentary information. The methods to be used in identifying these Qur'äns remain to be discovered by future researchers. To tackle all three schools of Qur'änic illumination-Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal-would be too big a task. Even to concentrate on Safavid Qur'äns alone is itself a task that requires time, devotion, and, incidentally, strong financial support to arrive at a sufficiently detail analysis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:553768 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Zain, Dzul Haimi bin Md |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/21628 |
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