14th-century Mamluk Qur’an
Information
Description
This 14th-century Qur’an from Egypt.
The manuscript
This Qur’an is written in muhaqqaq script, with ornamental chapter headings in eastern kufic script in variously shaped panels. Gold roundels indicate the end of each verse. This manuscript contains numerous marginal ornaments, sometimes as many as six to a page. In the image shown here, the bottom ornament in the margin is a sajdah marker, indicating one of the fourteen points at which the believer should prostrate during the recitation of the Qur’an.
What is the significance of the opening shown here, folio 303v?
The text here shows the whole of chapter ninety-six. According to Muslim tradition, the first five verses of this chapter contain the first revelation that the Prophet Muhammad received, in the cave of al-Hira’, while wandering alone outside Mecca in the western Hijaz region of the Arabian Peninsula.
- Full title:
- Qur’an, 14th century
- Created:
- 1300–1399, Egypt
- Format:
- Manuscript
- Language:
- Arabic
- Usage terms
- Public Domain
- Held by
- British Library
- Shelfmark:
- Or 1009
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