The Deccani Trails of the St Andrews Qur’an Manuscript – Lecture by Dr. Keelan Overton

Shortly after its production in Safavid Tabriz or Herat, the single-volume Quran manuscript known as the “St Andrews Quran” traveled east to the Deccan region of southern India and circulated between four courtly contexts over the next two hundred years. The evidence for this dynamic life history is found in the codex itself, and this talk summarizes the findings of a multi-year interdisciplinary archaeological excavation of the manuscript. Weaving between the object, archive, and political realities of the Deccan sultanates, Mughal court, and Tipu Sultan, I consider how the St Andrews Quran inspires the writing of ground-based art histories that challenge prevailing taxonomies.

This event is organized by the King Abdul Aziz In Saud Chair in Islamic Studies.