Unknown North African, Middle Eastern, and Near Eastern
Qur'an Manuscript

CultureMoroccan
Titles
  • Qur'an Manuscript
DateEnd of Rabi' al-Awwal, AH 718 AH / AD 1318
Possible placeFez, Morocco
Possible placeMarrakesh, Morocco
MediumInk, opaque watercolor, and gold on parchment
Dimensions11 1/4 × 11 3/8 × 2 3/8 in. (28.5 × 28.9 × 6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Honorable and Mrs. Hushang Ansary, the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund, and the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund
Object number2007.1303
Current Location
The Caroline Wiess Law Building
113 Islamic Art Gallery
On view

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Description

This superb Qur'an—the holy book of Islam—displays an elaborate program of illumination, a technique that employs gold and silver to decorate the opening and closing pages of the book and to highlight the internal divisions of the text.


Penned on parchment, which was a favored medium for Qur'anic manuscripts made in the western Islamic world, this example is written in Maghribi script, the distinctive style of the North African manuscript production of the 13th through 15th century.


The word qur'an literally means recitation, and the Qur'an was compiled in the years following the death in 632 AD of the prophet Muhammad. The text gathers the revelations that Muhammad received directly from God through the angel Gabriel. Through the Qur'an, Arabic became the main language of the Islamic world, and calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, achieved the status of the highest form of visual expression.


 


Provenance Research Ongoing Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Gallery inventory number (removed): "SF 10700"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Bifolio from a Qur'an Manuscript
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19th century
Silk; woven with metal-wrapped threads
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[Panel]
Unknown North African, Middle Eastern, and Near Eastern
17th century
Wood
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later 17th Century or later
Silk; woven with metallic thread
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Unknown North African, Middle Eastern, and Near Eastern
18th century
Wood; carved, gilt, and painted
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