Name of Object:

Binding

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

Museum Inventory Number:

C.U. 1

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Black leather with a grainy surface.

Dimensions:

Length 17.6 cm, width 11.5 cm, thickness 0.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Fatimid–Zirid

Provenance:

Kairouan.

Description:

Back board. Italian format. In the centre of the panel is a magnificent nine-lobed fleuron, enclosed within three rings. From these rings emerge two symmetrical spear motifs set along the longitudinal axis and four furled, tri-lobed leaves pointing towards each corner. There is a simple border of lines, each 4 mm wide. This type of floral design is found on many funerary stones in Kairouan from the AH mid-4th / AD 10th century to the middle of the 5th / 11th century and probably gives us a first clue to the date of the binding. The stylised, multi-lobed vine-leaf motif, furled or spread, is one of the most typical elements of the decorative repertoire of mediaeval Kairouan, which confirms that the panel belongs to the Kairouan School of bookbinding. Moreover, during the 4th and 5th centuries (10th and 11th) Ifriqiya was a great centre of book production, exporting to Egypt, Syria and Spain. The leather is most probably goatskin and the relief is obtained by applying thin wire under the leather at the places where the ornamentation is drawn. The whole panel is then placed on a piece of wood covered in copper. This technique may well have been inherited from Copts living in the Muslim world.

Decorated in relief with ridges formed by string tracing the line of the motifs. The poly-lobed stylised vine leaf, furled or opened, is one of the most characteristic elements of the Kairouanese decorative repertoire of the Middle Ages.

How date and origin were established:

Other identical bindings have been found still glued to the volumes of the Qur'ans to which they belonged. Palaeographic study of their writing dates them very accurately to the 4th / 10th century.

How Object was obtained:

After the abolition of the habus foundation in Tunisia, this binding was obtained by the Museum of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in 1963. It has been displayed in the Museum of Islamic Art at Raqqada since 1986.

How provenance was established:

This binding was certainly produced at Kairouan which was an important centre for book production at that time.

Selected bibliography:

30 ans au service du patrimoine (exhibition catalogue), 1986, p.224.
De Carthage a Kairouan (exhibition catalogue), 1982, p.239, cat. no. 324.
Marcais, G. and Poinssot, L., Objets Kairouanais, I, Tunis-Paris, 1948, p.233, plate 26.
Tunez, Tierra de Culturas (exhibition catalogue), Valencia, 2004, p.227.
Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia, pp.159–62, 182–3.

Citation of this web page:

Mourad Rammah "Binding" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tn;Mus01;7;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 11