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Volume from a thirty-part Qur’an, 18th century
North Africa, probably Tunisia
Colors and gold on paper, leather binding; 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. (20.3 x 15.2 cm)
Purchase, Gift of George Blumenthal, by exchange, 1982 (1982.120.2)

Two lavishly illuminated double pages open and close the juz’ (thirty-part volume) from a Qur’an, which was lavishly bound in finely worked leather and copied in elegant late maghribi script, a type of calligraphy that has remained almost unchanged in North Africa since the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. The intricate decoration of this frontispiece, based on both geometrical and vegetal patterns, is conservative, but its varied color palette indicates a late date in the evolution of the art of illumination.


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  • Volume from a thirty-part Qur’an, 18th century
    North Africa, probably Tunisia
    Colors and gold on paper, leather binding; 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. (20.3 x 15.2 cm)
    Purchase, Gift of George Blumenthal, by exchange, 1982 (1982.120.2)