Presentation

Production and transmission of the Qur’an in Western Muslim Word (CORANA) is an interdisciplinary research project (FFI2012-32294) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Research for three years (2013-2016). It aims at establishing for the first time in a coordinated and systematic way a comprehensive corpus of data about the production of Qur’anic copies in the Western Islamic world between the 12th and the 16th centuries, that could serve as a basis for the development of further studies which would shed light on the cultural and intellectual history of the Muslim societies in the Western Islamic world during the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern times.

CORANA intends to reach in an innovative way the following goals: complete compilation and detailed analysis of the material features of these handwritten copies of the Qur’an produced in the Western Islamic world (codicology, paleography and art history); the study of their contents; and the study of the various ways they were handled and used within Andalusi or Maghribi Muslim communities as well as within a Christian Peninsular context. All this will help us in understanding the complex reality which surrounds the Qur’an, with special attention paid to its handwritten copies, not only in al-Andalus in late Middle Ages and early Modern times, but also in Northern and Subsaharan Africa during the same period.

Led by Nuria Martínez-de-Castilla (UCM, Spain), this international research group is composed by the following scholars :
– Thomas Burman (Tennessee, USA),
– François Déroche (EPHE, France),
– Marie-Geneviève Guesdon (BnF, France),
– Mauro Nobili (Cape Town, South Africa) and Patricia Roger (CNRS, France).

For any contact: nuria.martinezdecastilla@pdi.ucm.es