Qur’anic illumination
Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia
Museum of Islamic Art
About Museum of Islamic Art, Raqqada.
The Qur’an was part of a legacy (habus) left to the Great Mosque of Kairouan by Fadhl Mawlat Abi Ayub
Hegira 295 / AD 907
Fadhl Mawlat Abi Ayyub.
Rutbi 64
Parchment.
Oblong, 9 cm x 12 cm; 2 pages
Aghlabid
Kairouan.
The right-hand page has the illumination, which is framed inside a gilt rectangle. The central decoration has two concave diamond shapes with a gilt background marked with brown lines framing stylised multi-lobed fleurons. The decoration is surrounded on each side by six triangles containing similar floral motifs. The whole illumination is separated by strips on a white background dotted with brown markings and divided by gilt segments.
The left-hand page contains black kufic script. Vowels are marked by red dots and the hamza is shown with a green dot, as in the Abi al-Aswad system. The end of the verse is indicated by a triangle of three gilt dots. The end of the fifth verse is marked by a gilt medallion.
The title of the sura, with the number of its verses, is indicated on the same line by a gilt kufic inscription with brown edges which terminates in a palm-leaf motif pointing towards the left-hand margin.
The illumination, in a gold rectangular frame on the right-hand page, has two concave lozenges in its centre, gilded at the bottom and peppered with brown lines.
The left-hand page is written in black kufic script with the title of the sura and the number of verses given in golden kufic script.
The colophon of the Qur'an includes the Act of Mortmain (Tahbis) dated 295 / 907.
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.
This Qur'an was copied and left to the Great Mosque of Kairouan by a woman who appears to be Kairouanese. It was probably copied in Kairouan itself which was a great centre of book production at the time.
Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia, pp.175–6.
Mourad Rammah "Qur’anic illumination" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tn;Mus01;48;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 76
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