The Qur’an
As the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the verses of the Qur’an are canonical and cannot be changed. Because of the centrality of the Qur’an to the religion of Islam, copying all or some of its verses in any medium is considered a pious act. Over time a wide variety of styles of writing Arabic script developed, but not all of these were considered appropriate for copying Qur’ans. Qur’an manuscripts from the first two centuries of Islam were written on parchment in an angular style called Kufic after the Iraqi city of Kufa, an early Muslim capital.
Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of the Sea)
Originally composed in 932 AH / 1525 CE and dedicated to Sultan Süleyman I (“The Magnificent”), this great work by Piri Reis (d. 962 AH / 1555 CE) on navigation was later revised and expanded. The present manuscript, made mostly in the late 11th century AH / 17th CE, is based on the later expanded version and has approximately 240 exquisitely executed maps and portolan charts.
Album of Ottoman Calligraphy
This album (muraqqaʿ) of calligraphy in an accordion format was compiled in Ottoman Turkey in the twelfth century AH / eighteenth CE. It consists of leaves bearing fragmentary passages from the Qur’an (chapter…
A 16th Century Ottoman Atlas
It is an early Ottoman atlas, perhaps dating to the 10th century AH/AD 16th. The work contains 8 double-page charts executed on parchment. Four of the maps show the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black…
The Farjam Collection of Islamic Art
The Farjam Collection is one of the most impressive privately-owned collections in the world today. Featuring Islamic and pre-Islamic art, Contemporary Middle-Eastern art and International Modern and Contemporary Art, the Collection is born…
The Morgan Treasures of Islamic Manuscripts
It was at the urging of his librarian, Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950), that Pierpont Morgan purchased the core of his Islamic collection in 1911 and 1912. Greene had become Morgan’s librarian in…
Fragments of a 9th Century Quran
al-Qurʼān (ajzāʼ) Fragments of an Abbasid Qurʼān, probably written in the third century A.H / ninth century C.E., containing verses from the suras: al-Dhārīyāt (سورة الذاريات),al-Ṭūr (سورة الطور), al-Najm (سورة النجم), al-Qamar (سورة القمر), and al-Raḥmān (سورة…
Sufi-Inspired Artist Books
One of the great feelings I experience at the Brooklyn Museum is when I see a true connection between the Library and art collections here. This connection was felt recently at a public…
Smithsonian Museum’s Folio & Manuscript Collection
Click on any photograph to view complete image and its description. freer sackler gallery islam ssar78
Smithsonian collection of Qur’anic manuscripts
A collection of 9th–19th-century Korans (intact volumes and detached folios) from Iran, the Arab world, and Turkey at the Freer and Sackler galleries of Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian Art. Folio from a Koran…
LACMA Collection of Islamic Calligraphy
Calligraphic Artwork at LACMA. Click on any image for more details. ART WORK PAINTING KHALIGRAFI islamic-arts org lacma-collection-of-islamic-calligraphy lacma islamic collection
Turning the pages of an Ottoman illustrated manuscript
This essay is the 2004 Winner of the Margaret B. Sevcenko Prize in Islamic Art and Culture This paper focuses on an Ottoman illustrated manuscript copied in 1498-99, which is now in the…
