glasgow qur'an used by british troops

David Bryce of Glasgow (1845-1923) was one of the world's most prolific and successful publishers of miniature books. He was a bookseller at the tender age of 17 and took over the family publishing house after the passing of his father in 1870. Although the printing of miniature Qur'ans was already established in Delhi and Istanbul by the late nineteenth century, it is this Bryce miniature Qur'an that achieved the widest circulation. These Bryce Qur'ans were supplied to British-Muslim troops during the First World War, where they were worn as pendants that carried talismanic properties as well as serving as functional Qur'ans for reading with the help of the magnifying glass incorporated into the carrying case (see NLS website for more on Bryce and this edition of the Qu'ran).

Bryce's miniature Qu'rans are photolithographic reductions of 19th-century Ottoman editions two different of Hafiz Osman's Qur'ans: the first is based on the 1871 edition, complete with the signatures and seal impressions of the ten Islamic scholars (this is the present example); and the other is based on an 1884 Istanbul edition of a different Hafiz Osman Qur'an, which reproduces in its entirely the printer's colophon of the imperial press in Istanbul.

These miniature Qur'ans are also famously mentioned in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Book 4, Chapter 53) by T. E. Lawrence:'[Auda] told me later, in strict confidence, that thirteen years before he had bought an amulet Koran for one hundred and twenty pounds and had not since been wounded.... The book was a Glasgow reproduction, costing eighteen pence; but Auda's deadliness did not let people laugh at his superstition'.

Single volume, miniature photolithographed Qur'an, in Arabic, complete, 27 x 19 mm (32 x 25 mm with case); clean and crisp condition, ink inscription to front free endpaper, housed in original gilt stamped limp morocco covers, in original decorated metal case with magnifying glass.