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Page from an illuminated Qur'an manuscript
13th–14th century
Object Place: (probably Granada or Fez), Spain or Northwest Africa
Medium/Technique
Ink, color and gold on parchment
Dimensions
Overall: 54 x 56.5 cm (21 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Harriet Otis Cruft Fund
Accession Number33.677
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania, Islamic Art
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
This folio is from the largest and grandest Qurʾan manuscript ever produced in the western part of the Islamic world and one of the largest parchment Qurʾans ever made. The complete manuscript contained around 1,050 folios. Its size suggests that it was probably intended to remain permanently in a mosque or other institution for which it was made, functioning as both a manuscript for reading aloud and a powerful statement of piety and wealth by the patron who commissioned it.
The illumination is profuse, luxurious, and detailed, and was executed with great skill. A manuscript of this scale and luxury could only have been sponsored by a patron of enormous wealth and high standing — probably a prince or ruler of one of the dominant western Islamic dynasties of the period, perhaps the Nasrids of Granada (1232 – 1492) or the Marinids of Fez (1244-1465).
The illumination is profuse, luxurious, and detailed, and was executed with great skill. A manuscript of this scale and luxury could only have been sponsored by a patron of enormous wealth and high standing — probably a prince or ruler of one of the dominant western Islamic dynasties of the period, perhaps the Nasrids of Granada (1232 – 1492) or the Marinids of Fez (1244-1465).
DescriptionSingle folio from a dispersed copy of the Qur'an; 7 lines of Arabic calligraphy in dark brown maghribi script; letter pointing in brown and vocalization in blue, green, red, and orange; pinwheel verse marker outlined in blue and illuminated with a white, interlaced pattern and the word aya (verse) inscribed in blue in the center.
InscriptionsSura 24 [al-Nur, "Light"], vv. 61-62
ProvenanceDr. Aga-Oglu (b. 1896 - d. 1949), Ann Arbor, MI; 1933, sold by Dr. Aga-Oglu to the MFA for $100. (Accession Date: December 7, 1933)