Thomas Milo - The 1924 Cairo Mushaf: The Next 100 Years

This lecture will be hosted on Thursday, 5 February 2026 at 6:00 pm.

The 1924 Cairo Qurʾān (Muṣḥaf al-Malik Fuʾād) marked a turning point in Arabic information technology: the shift from handwritten calligraphy to reproducible print, creating today’s reference Qurʾān. A century later, the Mushaf Muscat (2022) demonstrates how digital methods not only preserve this legacy but also enhance philological accuracy through innovation. The result is a digital humanities model of broad relevance, applicable to any text, language or script where precision and cultural depth must align with the digital age.

About the Speaker

Thomas Milo studied Slavic, Turkic and Arabic languages, and served as an Arabist officer with Dutchbatt/UNIFIL in South Lebanon. He co-founded DecoType (1985), specialising in pioneering culturally accurate digital script encoding and modelling. His work bridges philology, orthography, and design to demonstrate how cultural computing can meet the challenges of the digital age.

Attention!

The lecture starts at 6 pm. The number of seats is limited and we work on a first-come, first-served basis. We open our doors at 5:30 and close them at 6:15 or earlier in case the lecture room reaches its full capacity.