Enigmatic Charms : Medieval Arabic Block Printed Amulets in American and European Libraries and Museums

This is a valuable source book for anyone interested in Arabic printing history. It illuminates the existence of an established block printing practice in medieval Islam and provides the foundation for broader, more extensive research in the field. ENIGMATIC CHARMS 3 Contents 7 Preface 9 Introduction 15 The Historico-religious Context of Arabic Block Printing 21 The (Re)discovery of Arabic Block Printing 35 Calligraphy and the Issue of Dating the Arabic Block Prints 55 BLOCK PRINTED AMULETS IN EUROPEAN LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS 67 Key to Transcriptions of Arabic Texts 69 Ägyptologisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Berlin 71 Cambridge University Library, Michaelides Collection 81 Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Geniza Collection 95 Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland 111 Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany 117 Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Institut für Papyrologie 125 John Rylands Library, University of Manchester 127 Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Papyrussammlung 129 Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg 171 Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge 177 BLOCK PRINTED AMULETS IN AMERICAN LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS 181 Columbia University Library, Papyrus Collection 183 Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington 191 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, A Gift of Camilla Chandler Frost 195 Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Islamic Art, New York, New York 201 Scheide Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University 233 List of Locations and Accession Numbers for Known Ṭarshes in Europe and the United States 239 List of Works Consulted 249 Index to Qur’anic Chapters (Suras) and Verses (Ayat) Appearing in the Texts of the Amulets 255 Index 257 Plates 259 DumpedBookmarks This is the first comprehensive examination of block printing in the medieval Islamic world. Examples of Arabic block prints have been preserved in various collections across the globe, but they have long been treated as curiosities and oddities. Here, for the first time, a large representative corpus of block prints is examined and illustrated. The first section of the book places Arabic block printing in historical perspective and recounts their rediscovery by modern day scholars. The second section illustrates fifty-five examples of medieval Arabic block printed amulets, provides detailed techical descriptions of each, presents transcriptions of their texts into legible Arabic and offers translations of those texts into English. This is the first comprehensive examination of block printing in the medieval Islamic world. Examples of Arabic block prints have been preserved in various collections across the globe, but they have long been treated as curiosities and oddities. Here, for the first time, a large representative corpus of block prints is examined and illustrated. The first section of the book places Arabic block printing in historical perspective and recounts their rediscovery by modern day scholars. The second section illustrates fifty-five examples of medieval Arabic block printed amulets, provides detailed technical descriptions of each, presents transcriptions of their texts into legible Arabic and offers translations of those texts into English