Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History


    • Fragment from a Qur'an manuscript, ca. 1400; Timurid
    Calligraphy attributed to cUmar Aqtac
    Central Asia (probably Samarqand)
    Ink, colors, and gold on paper

    H. 17 5/16 in. (44 cm), W. 38 1/4 in. (97.2 cm)
    Anonymous Gift, 1972 (1972.279)

    This copy of the Qur'an, calligraphed in an elegant muhaqqaq style, was probably the largest ever produced. The two lines of script, each over a meter long, are from sura LX:21–22 ("of the Believer"). Originally, each page included seven lines of script. A double-page would fit perfectly into the gigantic Qur'an stand in stone erected for the mosque of Bibi Khanum in Samarqand, commissioned by Ulugh Beg (1394–1449), the grandson of Timur, after Timur's death. Its calligrapher was probably the renowned cUmar Aqtac: some sources tell us that he had tried to astonish Timur by writing a Qur’an so small that it could fit under a signet ring, but, when the sultan was unmoved, cUmar wrote a Qur’an so large that it had to be brought to Timur on a cart!

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    • cUmar Aqtac (Central Asian, active late 14th–early 15th century)

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    This work has been published in the Museum's Bulletin or Journal. These articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship.
  • Ettinghausen, Richard. "Islamic Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 33, no. 1 (Spring, 1975).
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    Fragment from a Qur'an manuscript, ca. 1400; Timurid
    Calligraphy attributed to cUmar Aqtac
    Central Asia (probably Samarqand)
    Ink, colors, and gold on paper

    H. 17 5/16 in. (44 cm), W. 38 1/4 in. (97.2 cm)
    Anonymous Gift, 1972 (1972.279)


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