{
"data": {
"id": 157140,
"accession_number": "1993.39",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Qur'an Manuscript Folio, 800s. North Africa, Aghlabid or Abbasid, 9th century. Gold, ink and colors on parchment; sheet: 26.7 x 36.3 cm (10 1/2 x 14 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 1993.39",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Qur'an Manuscript Folio",
"creation_date": "800s",
"creation_date_earliest": 800,
"creation_date_latest": 899,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"North Africa, Aghlabid or Abbasid, 9th century"
],
"technique": "gold, ink and colors on parchment",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Islamic Art",
"collection": "Islamic Art",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 26.7 x 36.3 cm (10 1/2 x 14 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.267,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.363,
"width_inch": 14,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Kufic calligraphy. Text on the right page is the opening of the Chapter of the Star (53:1\u201321) and text on the left page is from the Chapter of the Moon (54:13\u201327).",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 14, 2012-December 9, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2012-11-14T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Oliver Hoare Limited, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1993",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1993-",
"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 in the Arabic language. Arabic script evolved gradually until the 800s when Muslim scribes produced copies of the Qur'an that were calligraphic masterpieces. This Qur'an, written entirely in gold, exemplifies the angular form of writing known as kufic at its majestic best. Distinctive markings\u2014short ink strokes, colored dots\u2014identify the vocalization of the text. Each folio is framed by an interlacing border and displays a leafy motif in the outer margin.
The text on the right page is the opening of the Chapter of the Star (53:1\u201321) with a section heading in the margin and an illuminated foliate band for the chapter heading at the top of the page. It begins: \u201cBy the star when it plunges, your comrade is not astray, neither errs, nor speaks he out of caprice. This is naught but a revelation revealed, taught him by one terrible in power, very strong.\u201d
The text on the left page is from the Chapter of the Moon (54:13\u201327).",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79947497"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1993.39-qur-an-manuscript-fo"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lings, Martin. The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination. London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1976.",
"page_number": "Comparative Material Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 18, nos. 3,4.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "U\u0308lker, Muammer. Tu\u0308rk Hat Sanati [= The Art of Turkish Calligraphy from the Beginning Up to Present]. Ankara: Tu\u0308rkiye is Bankasi, 1987.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 106, 108; Reproduced: pp. 107, 105",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Deroche, Francois. The Abbasid tradition: Qur'ans of the 8th to the 10th centuries AD. [London]: Nour Foundation in association with Azmimuth and Oxford University Press, 1992.",
"page_number": "Comparative Material Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 90\u201391, cat. 41",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Auld, Sylvia, \"Review of F. Deroche, The Abassid Tradition\" Qur'ans of the 8th to the 10th Centuries A.D...,\" in Oriental Art 39 no. 3 (1993): 93.",
"page_number": "p. 93",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"1993 Annual Report.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143-218.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 198; Mentioned: p. 158",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161457"
},
{
"citation": "\u201c1993 Annual Report.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143\u2013218.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 158",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161457"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 224",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.39",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
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"filesize": "271732",
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_print.jpg",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_full.tif",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 157140,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1993-05-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 800,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "800s",
"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": [
"Qur'an Manuscript Folio",
"Koran Manuscript Folio"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:10:48.318000"
}
}