Manuscript fragment from a Qur'an

Object Details

• Description

  Manuscript; fragment from a Qur'an; Sura al-An'am (the Cattle) 6:164-65; Sura al- A'raf (the Heights) 7:1-5 and 22-27; Arabic in black kufic script with a palmette gold heading extending out into the margin; sura title in gold; vocalized in red; 22 folios with one illumination, gold verse markers, palmette; standard page: one column; 13 lines of text.

  Binding: The manuscript is bound in papier-mâché with lacquer-painted floral designs and doublures of marbled paper.

• Label

  The twenty-two folios are part of a superb small Qur'an fragment, datable to the early 9th century. Bound in sections, its intimate size indicates that it was intended for personal use.

• Provenance

  From 1920s

  Family of Sophia Riefstahl, New Bedford, MA, from the 1920s [1]

  To 1997

  Sophia Riefstahl, New Bedford, MA, by descent, to 1997 [2]

  From 1997

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Sophia Riefstahl in 1997

  Notes:

  [1] According to Curatorial Note 3, Massumeh Farhad, October 1, 1997, in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (October 22, 2016 to February 20, 2017)

  Arts of the Islamic World (May 3, 1998 to January 3, 2016)

  Beyond the Legacy--Anniversary Acquisitions of the Freer Gallery of Art (October 11, 1998 to April 11, 1999)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Sophia Riefstahl

• Origin

  North Africa or Near East

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Manuscript

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  900s, 800s, 700s, 1100s, 1200s, 1000s

• Name

  Riefstahl, Sophia

• Place

  North Africa, Near East

• Topic

  Sura 7, Kufic script, West Asia, Art, Arts of the Islamic World, Illumination, Qur'an, Marbling, Sura 6

• Culture

  Muslims, Abbasids

• Object Type

  Manuscripts