Size Matters!

Miniature Mushafs and the Landscape of Affordances

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to address the question of why miniature Qur'ans have been and still are desirable objects. The question is approached with the help of the concept of "affordances" (Gibson 1986; Knappett 2005), or the different "action possibilities" that material objects present to different organisms, including humans. Affordances are relational in character, and dependent upon the organism's anatomical, psychological, and in the case of a human, cultural and social set-up and contexts. The concept of affordances is combined with James W. Watts' theoretical distinction between three different dimensions (semantic, performative, and iconic) of how humans interact with and relate to sacred texts. The result is a set of possible, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, explanations why miniature Qur'ans are desirable objects, in what contexts, and to whom.