Browse Items (101 total)

The shifting tastes of Ottoman patrons can be seen in these two bindings, whose covers feature a distinctive pendant extending from a central medallion. Often beautifully decorated with tooled, stamped, painted, and filigreed leather, some Ottoman…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…

This leather folder or document case (Turkish cilbend or ciltbend) is made with semi-rigid pasteboard covered by fine leather and impressed with a raised design. The innovative techniques developed by bookbinders were made possible by the lightweight…

This tiny hymnal (Greek, irmologion), a collection of Christian religious songs, may have been produced in Istanbul. The thriving city, formerly known as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire until 1453, was a vibrant centre for manuscript…

This Qur'an provides an example of a lacquered book binding, a Persian technique that was first developed in the fifteenth century but became highly popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These glossy bindings are created by building up…

Lacquered bindings like this black and gold one, featuring flower and bird motifs, were popular in the nineteenth century. The central design displays a rosebush in various stages of bloom, with three nightingales perched
on its stems. Bindings came…

This handwritten Tibetan scroll contains a story collection which, like many tales-within-tales, begins with a challenge: a prince is tasked with bringing a particular corpse from a remote cemetery in the mountains, but he must not say a word to it.…

Ethiopia's long history of Christian devotional reading can be seen in this carved and painted wooden book stand, recalling the famous monumental metalwork stands used for communal reading in the churches of the holy city of Lalibela, in northern…

Tailored for the senior rabbi of a synagogue in Bukhara, in modern-day Uzbekistan, this spectacular robe draws on a long Ottoman tradition of ornately decorated textiles. The robe, which would only have been worn on special occasions, features…

The Hindu Legend of the Blessed One (Bhagavata Purana) celebrates the god Vishnu, who descends to Earth in various forms to restore the balance of the universe. This page comes from a now-dispersed copy featuring paintings on one side and the…

A vivid Asian-inspired European textile forms the cover, bookmark, and carrying strap of this East African volume, handwritten in the Ge'ez language used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The manuscript, a private devotional text read during…

Whether hung on a wall or carried on the body, talismans covered with ornate inscriptions were believed to provide protection and secure blessings (Arabic, barakat). The gazelle skin shown here is inked with magic squares and inscriptions, promising…

In addition to Qur'anic and other devotional inscriptions, amulets often display magic squares--symmetrical arrangements of equal numbers, arranged on vertical, horizontal, and diagonal axes--in regular patterns called wafq, murabba', or buduh. One…

This unique case was designed to hold a miniature Qur'an, which would have been worn as a talisman to protect the wearer. A single loop at the upper right of the case indicates that this valuable object would have been suspended on a chain or cord.…

This talisman from Islamic Spain is a striking example of cloisonné enamel, created when coloured glass paste is added between strips of metal and heated. The vivid orange, green, and blue of this pendant were likely achieved by using coarsely…

Known as a bazuband, this type of Qur'an case was worn as an arm ornament. A silk string would be threaded through the palmette-shaped loops on either side of the box and tied around the bicep of a pious and wealthy person. Whether worn on the arm or…

The suspension loops of this gold amulet, a portable talisman, indicate that it would have been attached to a chain or cord, either worn around the neck or secured to a belt. Its inscribed Qur'anic verses offer blessings (Arabic, barakat) on the…

The Buddha teaches his disciple Subhuti how to achieve the perfection of wisdom on this page from the Diamond Sutra, composed in Sanskrit in India around the first century CE, and translated into Tibetan in the eighth century. This woodblock-printed…

This handwritten loose-leaf book (Tibetan, pecha) tells the story of a Buddhist woman named Alak Karma Wangzin who was a delog--that is, a person who dies briefly and then revives, and therefore can reveal the mysteries of life after death. Karma…