This illuminated and illustrated Arabic manuscript of the Gospels by Matthew (Mattá), Mark (Marquṣ), Luke (Lūqā), and John (Yūḥannā) was copied in Egypt by Ilyās Bāsim Khūrī Bazzī Rāhib, who was most likely a Coptic monk, in Anno Mundi 7192 / 1684 CE. The text is written in naskh in black ink with rubrics in red. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
The constellation of Cancer, the crab. Astrological-astrono mical picture. From a 15th-century Arabic collectaneous manuscript known as Kitab al-bulhan. The Bodleian Library, University of...
This is an illuminated manuscript comprised of three short works on Sufism by Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898 AH / 1492 CE), produced in Safavid Iran. The first work is called Lavāyiḥ and consists of a collection of apophthegms. The second work is a commentary on the famous Arabic "Wine poem" (Khamrīyah) by ʿUmar ibn Fāriḍ (d. 632 AH / 1235 CE). The third work is a commentary on the "Song of the flute" from the beginning of the Mas̱navī of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672 AH / 1273 CE). The manuscript was written in nastaʿlīq script by the well-known Iranian calligrapher Bābā Shāh ibn Sulṭān ʿAlī Iṣfahānī in 999 AH / 1591 CE. There is a note dated to the year 1105 AH / 1694 CE on fol. 1a indicating that the manuscript is made up of two papers: Samarqandī (for the text) and Dawlatābādī (for the margins). There are also seals dating between the eleventh century AH / seventeenth CE and the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
This is an illustrated and illuminated copy of the collection of poems, known as Mas̱navī-i maʿnavī, of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672 AH / 1273 CE). According to the colophon (fol. 314b), the text, written in black nastaʿlīq script, was completed in India in 1073 AH / 1663 CE. Each section of the work is introduced by a double-page illuminated incipit containing a preface in prose, followed by two illustrations and an illuminated incipit page for the masnavi. In total, fifty paintings illustrate the text. The green leather binding is modern. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
Competition Piece; 10X14. Calfskin parchment. Handmade paints of pigment in binder made of gum arabic, honey and distilled water. Aurum Gold Leaf (23.5 kt); Shell gold touchup (23.75 kt). Rabbit skin hide glue for gilding. Handmade oak gall ink. The illumination style is that of the Lewis E-7 manuscript, a gothic processional. The original manuscript was dated to approximately 1500-1515. The primary text of this document is a selection of a medieval liturgical hymn, the Dies Irae. Process pics and abridged documentation located at my site. Wshew!
This small, illuminated single-volume copy of Qurʾan was produced in Iran in the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE. The manuscript opens with an illuminated double-page incipit with the verses of chapter 1 (Sūrat al-fātiḥah) and the initial verses of chapter 2 (Sūrat al-baqarah) decorated with interlinear illumination and framed by a polychrome border and headpieces of floral design on a blue ground (fols. 2b-3a) . The text is written in a vocalized naskh script in black with reading marks in red and text divisions of sixty verses (ḥizb), thirty verses (juzʾ), and niṣf al-juzʾ inscribed in red in the margins. Illuminated discs with colored dots separate the verses. Chapter headings are in red or blue riqāʿ script on a gold background. The nineteenth-century lacquer binding with floral composition on a red field is contemporary with the manuscript. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
During the rule of the Mamluks who ruled in Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517, the presence of Crusaders coming from Europe seems to have stimulated a great interest in the military arts, weaponry and cavalry training among rulers in the Near and Middle East. The cavalry training was...
Water powered systems, pulleys and gearing mechanisms, images from an arabic manuscript, datable from the 16th to 19th century. Sources: Max Planck Digital Library via Wikimedia Commons, Via: The Public Domain Review
Illuminated Shamsa - Anita Chowdry "The word Shamsa derives from the Arabic word for the sun. By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it became a customary device for the opening pages of royal...
Venus (ruler), signs Taurus and Libra along with lunar mansions - Persia 17th c. visual and symbolic correlations with Saraswati (goddess of learning, music and arts - guardian of the Earth)
Penned by the illustrious 16th century-Safavid calligrapher Shāh Maḥmūd Nīshāpūrī, this copy of the first collection of poetry (Dīvān-i avval or Fātiḥat al-shabāb) by Nūr al-Dīn Jāmī (d. 898 AH / 1492 CE) was probably illustrated in the 11th century AH / 17th CE. It opens with a double-page miniature acting as a frontispiece, and is followed by an elegant double-page decorated frontispiece. It contains 10 other illustrations at various points in the text. The whole in bound in lacquer covers decorated with hunting scenes. To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
