Manuscript Migration: The Multiple Lives of the Rubenstein Library's Collections

This eighteenth-century manuscript of Enâm-ı Şerîf, an illuminated devotional book, bears witness to the beauty of the Islamic-Ottoman calligraphy tradition and showcases the mastery of its calligrapher through the sacred text of Qur’ān. As a popular saying goes, “The Qur’ān was revealed in Mecca, recited in Cairo, and written in Istanbul.” Donated to Duke by Elizabeth and Alfred Brand, the manuscript attests not only to the high status of the Qur’ān among the calligraphers of eighteenth-century Istanbul but also to the antiquarian interests of Harry L. Dalton, a prominent North Carolinian and Duke alumnus. 

The manuscript contains a hundred and forty-four leaves with thirty-four chapters, including the Qur’ānic chapter Surat al-An‘ām, Arabic and Turkish prayers, verbal descriptions (hilye) of prophets and the Prophet Muhammad’s Companions, a few talismans, illuminations of Mecca, Madina, and of several relics and items, including the staff of Moses, personal objects of Prophet Muhammad, and the sword of 'Ali.

Surat al-An‘ām, the sixth chapter of the Qur’ān, became the eponymous chapter for a separate prayerbook genre, called Enâm-ı Şerîf. Part of the prayerbook tradition, this Enâm-ı Şerîf was penned by the calligrapher Ismāʻīl Baghdādī in the style honed first on copies of the Qur’ān.

This manuscript, the only Ottoman Turkish manuscript in Duke’s collection, is an eighteenth-century example of a calligraphic tradition that dates to the early sixteenth century. Transmitted from master to apprentice through silsile (chain or lineage), in this artistic tradition hattats (calligraphers) demonstrated their mastery of the craft by writing the Holy Qur’ān.