Qur'an Boards

Koranic Writing Board made in the mid-late 20th century, residing in the National Museum of African Art

Koranic slate with geometric camel illustration. H 26.5″. Hausa artist, Nigeria, late 20th century. Minneapolis Institute of Art.

19th-century Qur'an board in the Walters Art Museum collection, acc. no. 61.347.

Qur’an boards (or lawh, pl. alluwa), are wooden boards or tablets that are historically and contemporarily used by students in sub-Saharan Africa, especially West Africa, to learn the Qur’an. In addition to being used as educational tools, these boards bear greater religious and cultural significance, as they are also used in spiritual and healing rituals.

Construction and design

Qur’an boards are made from locally available woods, such as mahogany or baobab. Inks used on the writing boards are typically made from natural pigments that are mixed with charcoal and water. In some cases different inks may also include ingredients that are said to be spiritually important, like saffron. Some boards have decorative details, like patterns, borders, illumination, or calligraphy. Qur’an boards are a cultural link between written Islamic tradition and broader African material culture. Qur’an boards have been found to be visually similar to Islamic manuscripts, which feature distinct regional calligraphy and materials. The designs reflect Islamic manuscript illumination in Islamic West African cultures and include elements such as geometric borders and intricate interlacing patterns and red and black ink.

Educational use

Qur’an boards are used in Islamic education in West Africa (in schools, or madrasas) for learning the Qur’an. Students repeatedly copy verses from the Qur’an on the boards to facilitate their memorization and spiritual understanding of the sacred text, but doing so also supports literacy generally. Qur’an boards have been used for centuries in West African Qur’anic schools and remain integral despite the introduction of colonial-era education systems that favor blackboards and westernized classrooms.

Detail of a Qur'an board on a milk transport calabash. Fulani artist, Bamenda, Cameroon, before 1972.

Religious and spiritual use

As objects of both devotion and education, Qur’an boards are not only important for their educational function, but they also are used for spiritual healing and similar ritual purposes. In some cases, spiritual practitioners inscribe Qur’anic verses or diagrams on the boards for clients seeking protection from illness, misfortune, or the evil eye. Once a verse or chapter has been mastered, the writing on the board is then washed off and the water collected. It is believed that the water is then imbued with the sacred scripture through the ink itself. The water is then consumed or used in healing rituals. The belief is that by imbuing the water with the word of God it can offer protection, wisdom, or physical healing. This practice is based on the belief that the written word itself carries divine power. The symbolic power of sacred writing in African Islamic traditions, especially in the form of amulets and writing boards used for both religious education and spiritual protection. Lawḥ boards are part of a broader tradition of Islamic manuscript preservation in Africa and are often misunderstood or undervalued in academic and museum contexts.

Qur'an board made in Nigeria in the late 19th or early 20th century by a Hausa artist.

Museum collections and artistic references

Detail of a West African Qur'an incipit from the 19th or 20th century. H: 4 5/16″. Walters Art Museum, W.853.I.

Institutions such as the British Museums, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris now all have Qur’an boards in their collections. The imagery of Qur’an boards are also found in various pieces of contemporary art. This can be seen in the pieces By His Will We Teach the Birds How to Fly by Ibrahim El-Salahi and a detail of a Koranic slate on a milk transport calabash by a Fulani artist.