Welcome to Navigating Culture: Islam and Encounter in the Indian Ocean World, a Claremont Colleges Library, Special Collections exhibit reflecting the movement of people, culture, and ideas between Africa and Asia via passage through the Indian Ocean, spanning the 7th to 19th centuries.
We recommend exploring the website via the Browse Exhibits tab, as the organization of this website is based upon the physical arrangment of materials in the original exhibition.
Featured Item
Qur'an manuscript, first page

Manuscript in Arabic, written in naskhi script, with gold border on each leaf, six fully illuminated leaves, lacquer binding, and doublures; on spine:…
Featured Exhibit
Illuminated Beauty

Calligraphy, or beautiful writing, is arguably the most identifiable and time-honored form of Islamic art. By the 10th century, six...
Recently Added Items
LI118.1 Mihrdukht aims her arrow at the ring

From a Hamzanama manuscript, gouache with gold on cotton cloth, c. 1570. On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, from Howard Hodgkin.
LI118.80 Rawat Gokul Das at the Singh Sagarn

gouache with gold and silver on paper, On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, from Howard Hodgkin