Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript

ca. 1180
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 451
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript
  • Date: ca. 1180
  • Geography: Attributed to Eastern Iran or present-day Afghanistan
  • Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
  • Dimensions: H. 11 3/4 in. (29.8 cm)
    W. 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm)
  • Classification: Codices
  • Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.160.23
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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