The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester in England is digitizing one of the largest and most important Korans in existence, one that could previously be studied by few due to its size, weight and fragility. Funded by the non-profit Islamic Manuscript Association, the project will take just under 1,000 images of the 500 year old book.
The “Rylands Koran of Kansuh al-Ghuri,” with pages that measure three feet by two feet, is believe to have originated in Cairo from the library of Kansuh al-Ghuri, one of the last Mamluk Sultans of Egypt.
Each 100 MB scan has a maximum resolution of 60.5 million pixels and is captured using a PhaseOne P65+ digital camera attached to a Macbook Pro.
The digital artifact will be freely available on a dedicated website using Turning the Pages, a book viewing technology pioneered by the British Library.
What does the study of a specific book, especially an iteration of one of the world’s great religious texts (not exactly in short supply) teach us? Among other things, the study of a lush example can give us access to attitudes toward art, calligraphy and ornamentation. Those in turn can give us a window into attitudes toward life in general and religion in specific.
Two leaves that were missing from the Koran were later found at Ireland’s Chester Beatty Library. The scanning program will allow those leaves to digitally relaid into the book.
The entire project is being chronicled on the blog Gateway to the Koran of Kansuh Al-Ghuri.
Scanning photo from Gateway | other sources: Daily Mail, ResourceBlog
