Minneapolis Institute of Art

Page from the Andalusian Pink Qur'an

Spain

Date

13th century

Medium

Ink and gold on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Amid vast geographic, temporal and cultural diversity, a unifying aspect of Islamic art is the reverence for the written word as the channel through which God spoke to the prophet Muhammad as revealed in the Qur’an, the most sacred text of Islam. For both the calligrapher and the patron, copying and adorning the word of God would have been a form of both religious and artistic expression. This peach-hued page is inscribed on both sides with lines from the Qur’an, comprising Surha (chapter) 21, verses 9-12 of the text. The beginning of each verse is marked with a gilded rosette, while the Maghrebi calligraphy, characterized by large, looping curves which visually propel the resuscitator through the text (Arabic text is read right to left), shows a master calligrapher deftly evoking the rhythmic yet solemn nobility of the sacred text. Produced in the 1200s CE in Al-Andalus, the Islamic kingdoms of Spain (711-1492), this page was originally part of the monumental “Pink Qur’an” which consisted of over 20 volumes. Europe

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