Album Page with Qur’anic Verses

Location: Iran

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; mounted on coloured papers and card

Dimensions: 13 x 8.3cm (central panel)

Accession Number: CAL 275

Other Notes:

The text in the central panel consists of quotations form the surah al-Fath (XLVIII), verse 1–3 and part. of verse 4. It is written in nasta‘liq, a script which was only very rarely used to copy out the Qur’anic text. However, as the verso of the present page has no text, it is unlikely to have come from a copy of the Qur’an, and was most likely intended for an album from the first. The text in the margin, which is written in naskh, is from surah Ya‘-sin (XXXVI), verses 1–19.

Script:

written in nasta‘liq and naskh scripts

Bibliography:

N.F. Safwat, The Art of the Pen. Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume V, London 1996, cat.46, p.98.