As we conclude the month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Chapin Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of an Ottoman manuscript Qur’an from the mid-19th century, written and decorated in a style which some consider to be the brightest flowering of Arabic calligraphy, and comprising 302 leaves of supreme reverence of the sacred text of Islam.
This fine example is available to see and consult in our temporary quarters at the Southworth Schoolhouse, together with several printed editions of the Qur’an. Among these is the first edition published in the United States, The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mahomet, translated from the original Arabic into French by the Sieur De Ryer and then into English by Alexander Ross, printed in Springfield, Massachusetts by Henry Brewer for Isaiah Thomas, Jr. in October 1806.
