Written in a bold muhaqqaq script with the word Allah in gold, this page is from chapter three of the Koran (the House of Imran), verses 79 and 80. The passage stresses the importance of submission to God. Iran. 14th century. 17.8 x 36.1 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

During the reign of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt and Syria (1250-1517), the production of Korans reached new levels of refinement and sophistication. By the fourteenth century a series of more legible cursive scripts had replaced kufic as the standard Koranic script. This folio is written in muhaqqaq, an elegant cursive script particularly favored for Mamluk Korans. Egypt. 14th century. 41.1 x 31.6 cm. Muhaqqaq and thuluth scripts. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

The rim of this lamp bears an inscription from the surah al-Nur (Light), verse 35: “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass.” Syria or Egypt. 15th century. 33 x 25 cm. Courtesy of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

This Koranic fragment includes the bismillah and verses 1-14 of surah 81, entitled al-Takwir (the Folding up). The calligraphy is executed in rayhani script. This writing style is most closely associated with the master calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta’simi and Korans produced in Iran during the 13th and 14th centuries. Calligrapher: unknown. 14th century. 15.5 x 8.8 cm. Rayhani script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

The script used here is called masahif, which was used for copying the Koran (and occasionally for copies of the Bible as well). It is a smaller and less stiff version of muhaqqaq, with which it is often mistaken. Calligrapher: unknown. 15th century. 10.7 x 14.8 cm. Masahif script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

The script on this page is thuluth, a cursive script typical of the Mamluk period (14th-15th centuries) in Egypt. The background of spiral scrollwork used on this decorative page is also characteristic of Korans of this period Calligrapher: unknown. 14th-15th centuries. 11.2 x 16.8 cm. Thuluth script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

The text of this page is executed in large and clear muhaqqaq script in black ink on five lines per page typical of Ilkhanid (Iran) and Mamluk (Egypt and Syria) Korans produced during the 14th and 15th centuries. Calligrapher: unknown. 14th-15th centuries. 13.5 x 18.5 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

Written in Turkish, this folio is from a copy of the collected works of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (reigned 1470-1506), and is executed in a technique known as quita’ (decoupage). Instead of writing in ink, individual letters are cut out of different colored paper and pasted on a contrasting background. The art of decoupage, which originated in late-fifteenth-century Herat, required tremendous skill, dexterity, and imagination. Herat, Iran. 1490 A.D. 23.8 x 15 cm. Nastaliq script. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

By the thirteenth century, a number of more cursive writing styles had replaced kufic as the preferred scripts for the Koran. One of the most prevalent scripts was muhaqqaq, notable for its tall, slender verticals and sweeping sublinear strokes. Used throughout the Islamic world—from Egypt to India—for copying of the Koran, the script’s combination of vertical and horizontal letters lend it a distinct visual dynamism. The other popular cursive script was thuluth, reserved primarily for monumental inscriptions on objects, buildings, and chapter headings as is evident here. Egypt. 14th century. 41 x 31.8 cm. Muhaqqaq and thuluth scripts. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

This page is from the book Khusraw u Shirin, by Nizami. The inscription reads, “Of the poetry of… Shaykh Awhaduddin Nizami of Ganja… Written by the slave who hopes for divine pardon Ali ibn Hasan al-Sultani in… may God disregard his sins, at the capital Tabriz, may God protect her from catastrophe and calamity.” Calligrapher: Ali ibn Hasan al-Sultani. Iran. Early 15th century. 18.3 x 12.7 cm. Nastaliq script. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Inscribed along the widest part of this bottle in thuluth script is the Arabic phrase, “Glory to our master, the sultan, al-Malik, al-Mujahid, the wise, the just.” Syria. Mid-14th century. 47.9 x 24.8 cm. Thuluth script. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

According to the elegant inscription encircling the rim of this fine beaten-brass bowl, it was made for the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Muzaffar, Saif al-Din Hajji, who ruled for only one year from 1347 to 1348. Like many other Mamluk vessels, the bowl’s interior base is adorned with a fish-whirl design centered on a radiating sun disk. Egypt or Syria. 1346-1347 A.D. 10.3 x 23.5 x 23.5 cm. Courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution; Lent by the Nuhad es-Said Collection.

Korans written in the bihari script such as this one have mostly been attributed to 15th century India. The letters’ exaggerated swoops give the impression of sailing boats. The outer border contains a Persian translation of the text in naskh script, in a zig-zag layout. India. 15th century. 32.2 x 23 cm. Bihari and naskh scripts. Courtesy of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

This page is from the book Khusraw u Shirin, by Nizami. The inscription reads, “Of the poetry of… Shaykh Awhaduddin Nizami of Ganja… Written by the slave who hopes for divine pardon Ali ibn Hasan al-Sultani in… may God disregard his sins, at the capital Tabriz, may God protect her from catastrophe and calamity.” Calligrapher: Ali ibn Hasan al-Sultani. Iran. Early 15th century. 18.3 x 12.7 cm. Nastaliq script. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

The opening spread of this Koran is richly illuminated, with the first two lines of the surah al-Fatihah (the Opening). Iran, probably Shiraz. 1336-1354 A.D. 21.9 x 14.3 cm. Thuluth, naskh and kufic scripts. Courtesy of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

Copied in seven lines per page, on one side only of enormous sheets of paper (almost 177 x 101 cm), this Koran is one of the largest ever recorded. It is possibly the work of Samarkand calligrapher ‘Umar Aqta’, who was one-handed and left-handed. He was said to have written a Koran for Tamerlane that was so small it would fit inside a signet ring. When that failed to impress, he presented Tamerlane with a giant Koran, each line more than a cubit in length (the width from elbow to fingertip), which had to be delivered to the palace in a wheelbarrow. For this he was rewarded on an appropriate scale. Herat or Samarkand, Iran. 1400-1405 A.D. One line: 24 x 96.5 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

The surahs (chapters) in this Koran are written in a combination of six lines of naskh in a text panel, with a line of thuluth above and below and surah headings in kufic set apart in illuminated panels. Iran, probably Shiraz. 1336-1354 A.D. 21.9 x 14.3 cm. Thuluth, naskh and kufic scripts. Courtesy of the Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.

Iran. 13th century. 61.3 x 42.2 x 7.6 cm. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Egypt. 14th century. 25 x 34 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

This Koran has an inscription in the front: “From the calligraphy of Sultan-Ali Qa’ini in Baghdad in the year 917.” (917 hejira—1511-1512 A.D.) Iran. 14th century. 36.5 x 24.8 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Egypt. 14th century. 17.7 x 22.2 cm. Naskh script. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

This Koranic fragment includes surahs 101-104, some of the shortest and final chapters of the Koran. The chapter headings include the total number of verses and are written in gold thuluth script on a blue and red background. The calligraphy used for the verses is masahif, a cursive script that is a smaller and less stiff version than muhaqqaq. Its name, which means “codices” or “volumes,” reflects its common use for copying the Qur’an. Calligrapher unknown. 15th century. 21.5 x 29.4 cm. Muhaqqaq and masahif script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

This calligraphic fragment includes parts of verses 190-191 of the 3rd chapter of the Koran entitled surah al ‘Imran (the Family of ‘Imran). The text is executed in a crisp and fully vocalized (vowelled) muhaqqaq script on a light beige paper, and may have been executed in Persia or Central Asia during the early 15th century. Calligrapher: unknown. 15th century. 35 x 16 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

This calligraphic fragment contains verses 78-80 of the 12th chapter of the Koran entitled Yusuf (Joseph). Calligrapher: unknown. 13th-14th centuries. 23.4 x 34.6 cm. Muhaqqaq script. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division.

Korans were frequently transported from one part of the Islamic world to another, encouraging the dissemination of certain calligraphic styles and formats. This folio was originally part of a now dispersed, thirty-volume copy that was transcribed in an unusual hybrid script, referred to by scholars as “thuluth verging on muhaqqaq.” The text, notable for the size of the script in relation to that of the folio, is framed with a kufic inscription set against a gold, floral scroll. Probably Anatolia and India. 14th-15th century. 28.8 x 18.6 cm. Rayhani, Muhaqqaq, naskh and kufic scripts. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.