{"id":1496,"date":"2016-06-02T12:28:02","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T16:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/islamicstudieslibrary\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2016-06-02T12:39:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T16:39:47","slug":"new-exhibition-illuminated-qurans-from-the-mcgill-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/islamicstudieslibrary\/new-exhibition-illuminated-qurans-from-the-mcgill-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"New exhibition: illuminated Qur’ans from the McGill collections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MS RBD Arabic 29 – Rare Books and Special Collections<\/p><\/div>\n

The Arabic writing used for setting down the sacred text of the Qur\u2019an went under a diffusion corresponding to the expansion of the Islamic faith and to the development of the Islamic civilization. It belongs to the family of Semitic scripts, which are consonantal scripts vocalized by means of accents. The conditions of use and development of the Arabic writing were therefore determined by its association with the language it expressed. Although Arabic became a major academic and literary language, it experienced divergences of articulation and pronunciation in the colloquial use which affected the way in which it was written.<\/p>\n

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MS RBD Arabic 18 – Rare Books and Special Collections<\/p><\/div>\n

The archaic or primitive Arabic writing was used in Arabia at the beginning of Islam, from the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s lifetime and during the caliphates of his immediate successors (632-660). From the very beginning, the Arabic script was associated with the religion of Islam, and became instrumental in the materialization and transmission of the divine message. In the 7th<\/sup> century, the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik imposed the use of Arabic to the central and provincial administration, and for the legends on coinage with calligraphic designs. This, in turn, led to two distinct paths in the development of the Arabic writing:<\/p>\n