Ricerc@Sapienza

The contribution aims at (re-)considering a unique Qur’ān manuscript in ciphered characters (Ar. al-ta‘miya), reminiscent of the ring-letters of the Graeco-Egyptian tradition (Brillenbuchstaben). The case of this Qur’an manuscript offers the opportunity to decode (Ar. istikhrāj al-mu‘ammà) a cryptographed text, to date and localize a very special Quranic codex and to investigate the history of the collections it passed through, as well as the religious and cultural context of its production. Last, but not least, the relations between Islam and magic – to which cryptography is often associated – will be considered.