Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript

Unknown

ca. 1180 · Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper · Islamic Art

Written in Eastern or new style kufic script , line two of this folio includes two long, vertical letters (alif and lam), forming a distinctive pointed oval-shaped pattern. The elaborate treatment of the background, entirely filled with vegetal scrolls terminating in large blossoms so that the script seems to stand out against the decorative background. The script and illumination are related to a Qur'an in the Topkapi Saray Museum, dated 573/1177–78, epigraphic inscriptions on architecture and luster ceramics of this period, suggesting a unity of style in Seljuk art of eleventh and twelfth century Iran and Iraq.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1180

Medium

Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1929