Series of folios from a dispersed copy of the Qur'an, written in gold on parchment dyed blue
Culture: Islamic, Tunisian
Materials/Techniques: ink on vellum, gold, silver, vellum, color, ink, color, gold and silver on vellum dyed blue ; script style: d. iv (see déroche 1992, 92)
Note: Citation/references: Anthony Welch, Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World, University of Tennessee Press (Austin, TX, 1979), page 15, 48-49/figure 4 ; Annemarie Schimmel, "Poetry and Calligraphy: Thoughts about their Interrelation in Persian Culture", ed. Richard Ettinghausen Westview Press, Inc. (Colorado, 1979), p. 176, fig. 109 ; Kristin A. Mortimer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums/Abbeville Press (Cambridge, MA; New York, NY, 1985), page 78/figure 82 ; Karel Otavsky, Islamische Textilkunst des Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme, Abegg-Stiftung (Riggisberg, 1997), fig. 3, pg. 21, b/w ; Jonathan Bloom, "Riggisberger Berichte", Islamische Textilkunst des Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme, Abegg-Stiftung (Switzerland, 1997), page 21/figure 3 ; Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, Islamic Arts, Phaidon Press (New York, NY, 1997), p 73 - 75, fig. 37 ; Laurie Adams, Art Across Time, Volume I: Prehistory to the Fourteenth Century, McGraw-Hill College (London, England, 1999), p. 322, fig. 10.2 ; Laurie Adams, Art Across Time: Second Edition, McGraw-Hill (New York, 2002), p 328/fig.9.2 ; Hans Belting, Florenz und Bagdad: Eine westösliche Geschichte des Blicks, Verlag C.H. Beck (Munich, 2008) ; Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science (Fireca i Bagdad: Zapadno-istocna povijest pogleda), Verlag C.H. Beck (Munich, Germany, 2008), p. 76, ill. ; Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science, Belknap Press (Cambridge, MA, 2011), p. 70, fig. 22 ; Laurie Adams, Art Across Time, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 2011), p. 308, fig. 9.2
Note: Exhibitions: Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World, Asia House, 01/11/1979 - 03/11/1979; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, 04/17/1979 - 05/27/1979 ; Islamic Art From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/1974 - ; Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World, Seattle Art Museum, 06/28/1979 - 08/12/1979; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 09/14/1979 - 10/28/1979 ; Islamic Art and the Written Word, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/05/1983 - 11/27/1983 ; Geometry of the Spirit: Islamic Illumination and Calligraphy, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/30/1988 - 06/26/1988 ; The Continuous Stroke of a Breath: Calligraphy from the Islamic World, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 12/20/2003 - 07/18/2004
Note: General note: Fragments from the same Qur'an: section in the National Institute of Art and Archaeology in Tunis (cf. Lings & Safadi 1976, no. 11; Paris 1982, no. 350); at least 75 folios remained in Kairouan in the 1950s (Shabbuh 1956, 345, pl. 3; al-Buhli al-Niyal 1963, no. 1); scattered folios in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, MS.33.686; Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums, MS.1967.23 (Welch 1979, no. 4); Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, MS.1405 (Arberry 1967, no. 4; James 1980, no. 9); Geneva, collection of Sadruddin Aga Khan (Welch & Welch 1982, 20–2), and two private collections (Geneva 1984, no. 1; Geneva 1985, no. 3); London, private collection (Bloom 1989, 99); Paris, Institute du monde arabe, AC 84-09; Riyadh, collection of Rifaat Shaykh al-Ard (Geneva 1988, no. 4); Tunis, National Library, MS.Rutbi 197 (London 1976, no. 498); others sold at Sotheby's, London, on 16 April 1984 (lot no. 147), 15 October 1984 (lot no. 220), 22 May 1986 (lot no. 243) and 20 November 1986 (lot no. 279), and at Sotheby's, Geneva, on 25 June 1985 (lot no. 11); also a single folio in the private collection of F. R. Martin (Grohmann 1967, 111)
Note: Production: possibly Kairouan, Tunisia
