The Qur’an declares that God taught humanity the use of the pen. Taking this commandment to heart, Muslim scholars systematically organized and extended almost every field of knowledge in astonishing new ways. For over a thousand years, this pursuit of knowledge set in motion exchanges with other artistic, religious, and scholarly communities. Through themes such as literature, religion, and science, this exhibition reveals that Islamic civilization has never been a homogeneous phenomenon: ideas and artistic practices always circulated between and among Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other faith communities.

Yale Library’s collection of manuscripts produced in the Islamic world is among the largest and oldest in the United States. Taught by the Pen: The World of Islamic Manuscripts celebrates Islamic civilization and its interconnected artistic, religious, and scholarly traditions. Showcasing 150 items from the nineth to the nineteenth centuries, visitors are invited to engage with the intellectual and aesthetic values and practices of the many peoples and communities encompassed by Islamic civilization. The exhibition sheds light on how these manuscripts—and the ideas they contain—were transmitted and disseminated. Gallery guests will encounter diverse books, from lavishly illuminated Qur’ans, elegant calligraphy albums, and delicately illustrated epics and chronicles to well-thumbed prayer books, beloved poetry collections, detailed maps, learned science and mathematics volumes, and more. The papers, inks, and bindings that transmit these ideas and genres reveal a continuity of artistic traditions and new innovations in works from the Middle East to North Africa, Europe, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and North America.