Workshop: Parchment, Paper, Inks, and Gold, The Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program and Harvard Art Museums, May 1, 2025 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

The workshop on May 1, 2025, will look at the materials and techniques of selected Qur’ans made between the 8th and 15th centuries in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. We will look at the supports (paper and parchment), bindings (when applicable), inks, gold, and polychrome pigments (opaque watercolors) used to create these manuscripts. We will also discuss their development over time and throughout the regions of the Islamic lands. We have paired one reading to complete before the workshop, Martin Levey’s “Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking and its Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology,” which includes a translation of al-Mu’izz ibn Badis’s treatise “Book of the Staff of the Scribes and Implements of the Discerning” (Kitab ‘umdat al-kuttab wa ‘uddat dhawi al-albab) composed c. 1025 CE.

This first part of the workshop will take place in the Art Study Center for two hours, 10:00am-12:00pm. Lunch will then be served. The final segment of the workshop, 1:00-2:30pm, will allow time for some of the participants to present a single leaf or single manuscript of their choosing to share with the cohort. This is not restricted to Qur’ans. Objects can be searched through the browse collections page of the Harvard Art Museums’ website.

Participation is by application and is limited to 15 graduate students.

Applications will be accepted until March 31 and applicants will be notified whether they have been admitted by April 14.

To apply, visit the link here.