Textiles in Islamic Manuscripts

The Textiles in Manuscripts Workshop, May 4-5, 2021 (https://booksilkroadstextiles.artsci.utoronto.ca/?page_id=329), is part of The Book and the Silk Roads project, which seeks to map connections between parts of the premodern world by describing the technology of the book (https://booksilkroadstextiles.artsci.utoronto.ca/?page_id=331). The aim of this virtual workshop is to examine the vast use of textiles in manuscripts, both practical and ornamental: their uses within bindings, as wrappers, enclosures, and covering, as cloth used to protect images, as symbolic or talismanic artefacts, and within manuscript painting. Workshop sessions focus on the use of textiles in Armenian, Chinese, Ethiopian, Islamic, Kashmiri, and Syriac manuscripts from the middle ages through the early modern period. The workshop is not meant to be exhaustive, but to take a unique approach in beginning an interdisciplinary conversation about the production and use of manuscripts across the Silk Roads. The session on Textiles in Islamic Manuscripts, focuses on case studies from Yemen and the wider Middle East. Co-discussants are Karin Scheper (Leiden University) and Sabine Schmidtke (IAS).