This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Part 15 of a 30-part Qur’an copied by Yaqut al-Musta‘simi

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Khalili Family Trust – Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art

About Khalili Family Trust – Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London

Date of Object:

Dated Hejira 681 / AD 1282–3

Museum Inventory Number:

QUR 29

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper; 16th-century Iranian stamped and gilded leather binding and flap, with paper-filigree doublures

Dimensions:

24.5 x 17cm; 58 folios

Period / Dynasty:

Ilkhanid

Provenance:

Iraq, Baghdad

Description:

Three other sections of this Qur’an survive in various libraries, but this is the only one that retains its original illumination. The frontispiece is decorated with a panel of intersecting rectangles and circles in gold with rich arabesque ornament in black, blue, white and red. The opening and closing spreads of text have three lines to the page. The heading of sura al-Kahf (XVIII) is written in white kufic in a decorated panel with a marginal palmette (folio 34b). The main text is in muhaqqaq.
Folio 58a bears the signature of the celebrated Baghdadi calligrapher, Yaqut al-Musta‘simi (d. 1298 AD), who gave the classical repertory of Qur’anic calligraphy known as the Six Pens its canonical form. Through his teaching and the eminent pupils who followed him, his version of the Six Pens was in use in many parts of the Islamic world from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

How date and origin were established:

Both date and provenance are based on the signature of the calligrapher, Yaqut al-Musta‘simi, whose work well documented.

Selected bibliography:

James, D., The Master Scribes. Qur’ans of the 10th to 14th Centuries AD, London: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume 2, 1992: cat.11, pp.60–67.
Rogers, J.M., The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London: Thames & Hudson, 2010: no.160, p.139.

Citation of this web page:

 "Part 15 of a 30-part Qur’an copied by Yaqut al-Musta‘simi" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;uk;Mus21;22;en

MWNF Working Number: UK1 22