Miniature Qur'an with Box

This miniature Qur’an with lidded silver box presents the motif of an eight-pointed star on the lid, the leather front flap of the binding, as well as the opening bi-folio of the manuscript. The motif likely has symbolic meaning reinforcing the protective function of such small portable Qur’ans. Once acquired by the French printer Antoine Galland in August 1800, in Cairo, the object illustrates how, following the Napoleonic conquest of Egypt in 1798, people and objects increasingly circulated across the mediterranean. Although the French Commission des Sciences et des Arts was primarily interested in Egypt’s ancient heritage, this Qur’an illustrates Galland’s interest for Islamic devotional objects.