{
"data": {
"id": 106704,
"accession_number": "1924.746",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Qur'an Manuscript Folio, 1500s. Afghanistan, Herat, Safavid period (1501\u20131722). Ink, gold, and colors on paper; sheet: 28 x 17.4 cm (11 x 6 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1924.746",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Qur'an Manuscript Folio",
"creation_date": "1500s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1500,
"creation_date_latest": 1599,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Afghanistan, Herat, Safavid period (1501\u20131722)"
],
"technique": "ink, gold, and colors on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Islamic Art",
"collection": "Islamic Art",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 28 x 17.4 cm (11 x 6 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.28,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.174,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main gallery rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016). (1924.746.1.b and 1924.746.2.a only)",
"opening_date": "2015-12-16T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Hagop Kevorkian [1872\u20131962], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1924",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1924-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, was elevated above all other art forms in the Islamic world because Allah (God), revealed the divine word of Islam to the Prophet Muhammad (570\u2013632) in the Arabic language. This beautiful double page forms the opening pages, or unwan, of a Qur\u2019an, the sacred book of Islam. Read from right to left, the verses are written in Arabic in elegant naskhi script on a gold ground with florets identifying the ends of the verses. Calligraphers who specialized in beautiful writing often dedicated their lives to copying the Qur\u2019an to grow closer to Allah and receive his blessings. The pages are enhanced with splendid illumination\u2014ornamentation in colors and gold with scrolling vines, blossoms, lozenges, and cartouches within bordered rectangles. Because the book arts were held in high esteem in the Islamic world, decorative motifs created by illuminators were often adopted in other art forms such as metalwork, textiles, and carpets.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79893698"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1924.746-qur-an-manuscript-fo"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 23, p. 116; Reproduced: p. 40",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.746",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.746/1924.746_web.jpg",
"width": "560",
"height": "900",
"filesize": "352879",
"filename": "1924.746_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.746/1924.746_print.jpg",
"width": "2115",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "3822846",
"filename": "1924.746_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.746/1924.746_full.tif",
"width": "3941",
"height": "6335",
"filesize": "74930100",
"filename": "1924.746_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 106704,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1924-06-26T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1500s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:44:19.860000"
}
}