Name of Object:

Two pages from the Blue Qur’an

Location:

Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Raqqada.

Date of Object:

Hegira 4th century / AD 10th century (second half)

Museum Inventory Number:

Rutbi 196

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Parchment dyed with indigo, illuminated.

Dimensions:

Length 31 cm, width 41 cm; 15 lines

Period / Dynasty:

Fatimid

Provenance:

Very probably from Kairouan, a great centre for book production at that time.

Description:

Two pages taken from an unique Qur'an, written in gilt kufic script and containing the suras Luqman (31: 34) and al-Sajdah ('Prostration' 32: 1–3).
Preliminary analyses has established that the indigo used for the dye was imported from Egypt or India, countries with which trade was beginning to develop in the AH 4th / AD 10th century. The gold-leaf was glued to the parchment using egg white.
The writing is compact and lacks any diacritical signs over the vowels. The letters are not stippled with dots.
The title of the sura is in a gilded strip made up of several small floral motifs. Attached to this strip and toward the left margin of the page is a gilt palm-leaf motif of floral arabesques. Marking the divisions between the verses are silver-gilt flowerets which have turned black from oxidisation.
Contrary to the views of certain art historians, the various pages of Qur'ans copied onto blue parchment and kept in a number of different museums and collections throughout the world originate neither from Mashhad in Iran nor from Spain. They all belong to the Blue Qur'an from the library of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. This is confirmed by similarities in the measurements, the number of lines, the writing and the gilding.

View Short Description

Two pages belonging to a single Qur'an: the Blue Qur'an, copied in gold kufic script. They contain the suras Luqman and al-Sajda. Pages from the Blue Qur'an from the Great Mosque of Kairouan, copied onto blue vellum, can now be found in different places throughout the world.

How date and origin were established:

The simple and archaic kufic calligraphy is reminiscent of the writing in other Qur'ans of the 4th / 10 century taken from the old library of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. This is corroborated by the palaeographic study carried out by the art historian M. Bloom, who showed that the calligraphy is of Maghrebi origin and can be dated from the 4th / 10th century, and even from the second half of that century.

How Object was obtained:

After the abolition of the habus foundation in Tunisia, the National Library obtained this Qur'an in 1967. In 1983 it went back to Kairouan, to the Centre of the Islamic Arts and Civilisation of Raqqada. It has been displayed at the Raqqada Museum of Islamic Art since 1986.

How provenance was established:

From the same studies by the art historian M. Bloom.

Selected bibliography:

De Kairouan a Carthage (exhibition catalogue), Tunis, 1995, p.41.
Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia, pp.159–62, 182–3.

Citation of this web page:

Mourad Rammah "Two pages from the Blue Qur’an" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tn;Mus01;2;en

Prepared by: Mourad RammahMourad Rammah

Né en 1953 à Kairouan, docteur en archéologie islamique, Mourad Rammah est le conservateur de la médina de Kairouan. Lauréat du prix Agha Khan d'architecture, il publie divers articles sur l'histoire de l'archéologie médiévale islamique en Tunisie et participe à différentes expositions sur l'architecture islamique. De 1982 à 1994, il est en charge du département de muséographie du Centre des arts et des civilisations islamiques. Mourad Rammah est également directeur du Centre des manuscrits de Kairouan.

Copyedited by: Margot Cortez
Translation by: David Ash
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: TN 02

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 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Fatimids


On display in

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Arabic Calligraphy | The Holy Qur’an

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