Accession number
MS M.539
Object title
Two leaves from a Qurʼan.
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
Display Date
11th century.