Qur'anic Matters: Material Mediations and Religious Practice in Egypt

(Paperback)

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In Quranic Matters, Natalia Suit explores the materiality of books, focusing on the mushaf. With its paper, binding, ink, and script, the mushaf is not simply a carrier of the Quranic text but, by the virtue of its material body, it also has the ability to engender reformulations of religious knowledge and practice. Reading the Quran on a screen of a phone, for example, does not require the same forms of ritual ablutions as reading a printed text. The rules of purity limiting the access to the Quranic text for menstruating woman change when the Quranic text is mediated by digital bytes instead of paper. Quranic Matters spans the time between two important technological shiftsthe introduction of printed Quranic books in Egypt in the early nineteenth century and the digitization of the Quran almost two centuries later. Throughout, Natalia Suit weaves together the theological, legal, economic, and social presences of the Quranic books into a single account. She argues that the message and the materiality of the object are not separate from each other, nor are they separate from the human bodies with which they come in contact.

Reviews

Quranic Matters is a wonderful combination of primary ethnographic data and broad interdisciplinary concern. Every chapter bursts forth with novel insights, ranging from material and digital culture, to the history of the book, accessibility studies, and everyday religious practices. * J.R. Osborn, Georgetown University, USA *

Author Bio

Natalia K. Suit is Adjunct Professor at East Tennessee State University, USA and Adjunct Professor at King University, USA.