Home > Digitized Walters Manuscripts

This document is a tranformation of a TEI P5 XML manuscript description incorporating images. If you have trouble reading special or non-Latin characters on this page, please make sure you have appropriate Unicode fonts installed and an up-to-date web browser.

Walters Ms. W.552, Koran

Browse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format

Shelf mark

W.552


Manuscript

Koran


Text title
al-Qurʾān

Vernacular: القرآن


Abstract

This horizontal-format manuscript on parchment is an illuminated fragment of the Qur'an, covering chapter 6 (Sūrat al-anʿām), the end of verse 54, through chapter 9 (Sūrat al-tawbah), verse 79. The fragment probably dates to the third century AH / ninth CE. The text is written in an Early Abbasid (Kufic) script in dark brown ink and vocalized with red dots. Chapter headings are in gold ink, and verse markers in the shape of a stylized letter hā' and rosettes with colored dots indicate groups of five and ten verses. The green goatskin binding with gold-painted central floral design and cornerpieces is thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE or later.


Date

3rd century AH / 9th CE


Origin

Central Arab lands


Form

Book


Genre

Scriptural


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Arabic.


Extent

Foliation: iii+67+iii


Collation

Catchwords: None

Comments:


Dimensions

21.0 cm wide by 13.5 cm high


Written surface

15.5 cm wide by 10.0 cm high


Layout
  1. Columns: 1
  2. Ruled lines: 15

Contents:
fols. 1a - 67b:
  1. Title: al-Qurʾān
  2. Incipit: بعده واصلح فانه غفور رحيم ...
  3. Text note: Contains chapter 6 (Sūrat al-anʿām), end of verse 54, through chapter 9 (Sūrat al-tawbah), verse 79
  4. Hand note: Written in Early Abbasid (Kufic) script executed in dark brown ink; vocalization indicated by means of red dots; occasional pointing of letters by means of slanted strokes
  5. Decoration note: Chapter headings in gold ink for fols. 32b (Sūrat al-aʿrāf), 50b (Sūrat al-anfāl), and 59a (Sūrat al-tawbah); verse markers in the shape of the letter hā' and rosettes with colored dots for groups of five and ten verses, respectively

Decoration:

fol. 32b:

  1. W.552, fol. 32b
  2. Title: Text page with illuminated heading for chapter 7 of the Qur'an
  3. Form: Chapter heading
  4. Text: Sūrat al-aʿrāf
  5. Label: This text page has an illuminated heading in gold ink for chapter 7 (Sūrat al-aʿrāf), reading: al-aʿrāf mi<ʾ>atān wa-khams <ā>y<ā>t.

fol. 50b:

  1. W.552, fol. 50b
  2. Title: Illuminated text page with indication of prostration (sajdah)
  3. Form: Illuminated text
  4. Label: In the right margin of this page is an inscription that reads: sajdah (prostration).

Binding

The binding is not original.

Probably thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE or later; green goatskin with flap; gold-painted central floral design and cornerpieces; endpapers of green textured paper


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Bockrath, Diane; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.