id: 157140 accession number: 1993.39 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.39 updated: 2023-03-14 12:01:51.795000 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 title: Qur'an Manuscript Folio title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 800s creation date earliest: 800 creation date latest: 899 current location: creditline: The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund copyright: --- culture: North Africa, Aghlabid or Abbasid, 9th century technique: gold, ink and colors on parchment department: Islamic Art collection: Islamic Art type: Manuscript find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Sheet: 26.7 x 36.3 cm (10 1/2 x 14 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Kufic calligraphy. Text on the right page is the opening of the Chapter of the Star (53:1–21) and text on the left page is from the Chapter of the Moon (54:13–27). translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 14, 2012-December 9, 2013). --- PROVENANCE (Oliver Hoare Limited, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1993 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1993- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall 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—short ink strokes, colored dots—identify 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 (53:1–21) with a section heading in the margin and an illuminated foliate band for the chapter heading at the top of the page. It begins: “By 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.”

The text on the left page is from the Chapter of the Moon (54:13–27). --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS 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: Ülker, Muammer. Türk Hat Sanati [= The Art of Turkish Calligraphy from the Beginning Up to Present]. Ankara: Türkiye is Bankasi, 1987. page number: Mentioned: pp. 106, 108; Reproduced: pp. 107, 105 url: 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. 90–91, cat. 41 url: 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: "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 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: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.39/1993.39_full.tif