The Qur'an is the fundamental text of Islam. For Muslims it stands as the preeminent place of encounter between the believer and God, for according to the Islamic tradition the text was delivered directly to the Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632 AD (date of his death). Believed to be originally an oral revelation, the Qur'an assumed the form of a tangible book shortly after the death of the Prophet. Recent research has demonstrated that the textual history and the canonization process were not as linear as the tradition describes. The Qur'an is first and foremost a sacred scripture; however, the peculiar status and performative character of the text makes it the ideal site of a variety of aesthetic experiences and devotional and popular practices.

With the exhibition, Words to Read – Words to Feel, the Museum für Islamische Kunst offers its public an introduction to the complex nature of the Qur'an through a selection of rarely exhibited objects. The exhibition curates precious Qur'an pages to different objects of daily use that together account for its multiple facets; of its history as a book, and of its reception and usage beyond the limits of the written word.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the research project Corpus Coranicum of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and features important loans from other Berlin Collections, as for instance the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Arabic Manuscript Collection of the Oriental Department) and the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.