This exhibition catalogue celebrates the beauty of the word, of the Arabic word, sanctified by Islam and spread by adoption from West Africa to Indonesia. It is a word both intellectual and physical, where meaning an aesthetic play constantly together, intertwining, enriching and occasionally subverting each other. It was present at the beginning of the British Museum in 1753, for the founding of the collection of Sir Hans Sloane was a quartz amulet engraved with verses of the Qur'an. And the great majority of the objects discussed in this catalogue are from the museum's collection. They offer a glimpse of one of the great universal achievements of islamic civilisation.