Browse Items (144 total)

"Moveable type printing was invented in China around 1045, but was never practiced on a large scale as the number of Chinese script characters (about 10,000) made it impractical. In Korea, moveable type was used more widely, especially from the 14th…

"Durable yet easily decorated, leather presented an ideal material for protecting Islamic manuscripts. Some particularly fine bindings executed in the 15th century even featured different designs on the upper and lower covers.[1] Delicate leather…

"The subject of this single-page drawing has been most often described as a learned man, but he also possesses qualities that may indicate he is a dignified Sufi. However, he wears rings on both little fingers, which might not reflect the modesty of…

This is an illuminated capital letter R. Inside the letter is: a seated tonsured scribe with a quill and a loose piece of parchment; a tonsured person with a censer; lots of dragons possibly eating one another; a dog playing a triangular instrument…

The contents (Sanskrit text and Hindu iconography), materials (Islamic burnished paper and Indian textiles), and format (Islamic-style binding of this manuscript of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita) all illuminate the fecund encounter of Persian and South…

Folio 129 verso of the Beowulf manuscript (London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV), showing the text of the poem's lines 122-146. The writing is clear Insular minuscule, verses written continuously, without line breaks. The page is…

Animals rights protest against fur Industries

Used for protection against illness, difficult childbirth, and the evil eye, this Ethiopian amulet scroll (Amharic kitab, Arabic for "book") was created by an ordained minister (Amharic debtara) from pieces of parchment tailored to the height of the…

20th-century Central Asian robe displayed in the Aga Khan Museum (Toronto) in Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads exhibit (exhibited during 2021-2022). The felted robe features four embroidered stories ranging from different cultures,…