The Big World of Tiny Books : Miniature Qur'ans
Exploring the miniature Qur'ans of David Bryce and Hans Steinbrener, published from the 1890s through the 1960s, including their remarkable use as talismanic pendants by British-Muslim troops during the First World War.
Miniature books are always a source of fascination to behold, providing wonder and amazement with their tiny script and dainty appearance. In the Islamic world, lithography lent itself nicely to the miniature reproduction of text and the practice was well established by the mid-19th century. It wasn’t until later in the 19th century, with the development of photolithography, that the mass-production of miniature books began in Europe.
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 death of his father in 1870. He published a wide array of Christian and literary texts in miniature; however it was his 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 were believed to carry talismanic properties, as well as serving as functional Qur’ans for reading with the help of the magnifying glass incorporated into the carrying case.
We are also fortunate enough to be able to share another remarkable survival from the Bryce & Sons publishers: the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in its original dust-jacket. Although the text is in English, a translation by Edward Fitzgerald, a clear nod to the Indian world of lithography is made by Bryce with the front cover and dust-jacket appearing as a reproduction of an Indian lithographed edition of the Rubaiyat:
Following on from the success of Bryce's Qur’an printed at the turn of the century, the Czech publisher Hans Steinbrener also began taking advantage of the new technique of photo-reduction and began reproducing miniature Qur’ans. Although these may initially appear similar, the text, endpapers and bindings differ from the equivalent Bryce edition with the most notable distinction being their size (the Steinbrener editions are about a centimetre bigger). Here we have a Steinbrener Qur’an from c.1918:
The Hans Steinbrener publishing house was established in 1855 and it held a Royal warrant to publish almanacs and religious texts in different European languages. Steinbrenner printed these Qu'rans from the turn of the century all the way into the 1960s. Here is a later example from c.1940s:
