Accession number
MS M.539
Object title
Two leaves from a Qurʼan.
Display Date
11th century.
Created
Spain or North Africa, 11th century.
Binding
Formerly bound in green morocco by Zaehnsdorf, London; rebound in full natural Irish linen by Deborah Evetts in 1981; the earlier binding is preserved separately.
Credit line
Purchased by J.P. Morgan, Jr., 1915.
Description
2 leaves (10 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 125 x 203 mm
Provenance
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) from Professor R. Meyer Riefstahl (1880-1936) in 1915.
Notes
Ms. written and illuminated in Spain or North Africa, in the eleventh century.
Text: sura 89, al-Fajr (the Dawn), verse 19, to sura 91, al-Shams (the Sun), verse 11.
An unknown number of leaves from this manuscript are in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul (Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi); eleven leaves are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Decoration: script is written in brown ink; diacriticals in the folm of short black diagonal strokes and voweling by red dots; verses are followed by small gold quatrefoils containing smaller red quatrefolis, both outlined in black; four green dots mark the angles between the lobes; every fifth verse is marked by a gold Arabic hāʼ with the upright stroke in the form of a half-palmette; every tenth verse is followed by a gold disk inscribed with the cumulative verse total in gold on a ground of red hatching; the disk is edged with gold petals with blue centers, blue outlines, and blue dots in the angles between them.
Text: sura 89, al-Fajr (the Dawn), verse 19, to sura 91, al-Shams (the Sun), verse 11.
An unknown number of leaves from this manuscript are in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul (Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi); eleven leaves are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Decoration: script is written in brown ink; diacriticals in the folm of short black diagonal strokes and voweling by red dots; verses are followed by small gold quatrefoils containing smaller red quatrefolis, both outlined in black; four green dots mark the angles between the lobes; every fifth verse is marked by a gold Arabic hāʼ with the upright stroke in the form of a half-palmette; every tenth verse is followed by a gold disk inscribed with the cumulative verse total in gold on a ground of red hatching; the disk is edged with gold petals with blue centers, blue outlines, and blue dots in the angles between them.
Script
Kufic
Language
Arabic
Resources
Catalog link
Classification
Department