Papyrus Fragment

Unknown

11th–12th century · Ink on papyrus · Islamic Art

This papyrus fragment of a non-illustrated single work is written in a cursive script with rounded letter terminals. Although the side shown here has ten lines, the other side has only seven that are smaller in scale. Papyrus was used for documents, letters, and commercial transactions in a type of script that is comparable to the modern cursive style. Diacritical points and vowel marks are visible, however, suggesting that this fragment did not belong to one of these categories. In fact, the text, which describes demons (jins) as invisible beings of fire and dark as the blackness of night, is philosophical and theological in nature. This could be a record of a treatise like the Mishkat al-Anwar (Niche of Lights), by the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazali (1058–1111).

Artist

Unknown

Date

11th–12th century

Medium

Ink on papyrus

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Museum Accession