Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

al-Qurʼān.
القرآن

Authors

• Free Library of Philadelphia. Rare Book Department. John Frederick Lewis collection of Oriental Manuscripts

Other related names

• Lewis, Anne Baker, 1868-1937, donor
• Lewis, John Frederick, 1860-1932, former owner

Call number

RBD Lewis O 02
(Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 2441495
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1083643492
• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/2441495

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Arabic

Origin

Date

between 1600 and 1899?

Place

North Africa?

Summary

Complete copy of the Qurʼān, except for half of verse 134 in Ṭā Ḥā. Copied on loose leaves of laid, watermarked European paper, decorated in red and yellow and kept between boards in a wrap and satchel. The boards have some recitation suggestions written on them. Two leaves with most of Muʼminūn verses 47 to 65 laid in; the leaves are in a different hand and do not replace missing text.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title from first leaf (f. 1r).
   

Extent

390, ii leaves : 170 x 115 (130 x 80) mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil added, top left recto; catchwords lower left verso.

Support

Paper

Binding

The pages are loose and were never bound. They are held between two boards of pasteboard framed in leather with text written on them. A wrap of blind tooled leather in reddish brown with a pattern of triangles made by the tooling and also dyed darker brown. The wrap is framed in the darker brown dye as well. The wrap encloses the textblock and ties with a leather thong. The wrapped text is then contained in a satchel of light brown and reddish brown leather with a decorated flap in green, black and brown of woven strips and tooled leather. The satchel has woven handles on both sides and a woven clasp.

Layout

15 long lines.

Decoration

Chiefly red and yellow. Several illuminated grids of alternating red and yellow geometric patterns (f. 1r, 93r, 193r-194r, 291r-291v). The first leaf has a monochrome grid of intersecting lines and crosses under the chapter title (f. 1r). Verse endings marked either by two concentric circles with yellow centers and red dots between the circles, or by yellow dots over a red pattern of two circles and lines. Marginal medallions marking text divisions appear throughout. At least four varieties of marginal medallions in red and yellow with differing decorative patterns occur, mostly consisting of combinations of straight lines and small circles. Sets of two concentric circles with the inner one bisected horizontally also frequently appear in the margins. Sūrah titles in red. Vowels and readings in red.

Script

Written in maghribi in brown ink, pointed and vocalized.

Provenance

• Gift of Anne Baker Lewis in 1933.
   
• Sold at Sotheby's in Dec. 1910 (catalog entry pasted into the inside of the wrap).
   
• Formerly owned by John Frederick Lewis (bookplate inside wrapper).
   

Subjects topical

• Manuscripts, Arabic--17th century
• Manuscripts, Arabic--18th century
• Manuscripts, Arabic--19th century

Genres

• Illuminations (painting)
• Manuscripts (documents)
• Qurʼans

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Rare Book Department RBD Lewis O 02: al-Qurʼān. are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Rare Book Department RBD Lewis O 02: al-Qurʼān.. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — al-Qurʼān.
• Loose leaf i recto — al-Muʼminūn [partial]

Decorations

• Front cover — Inscription in Arabic
• Inside front cover — Notation in English
• fol. 1r — Grid
• fol. 1v — Half-page grid fill in red and yellow
• fol. 93r — Half-page grid fill in red and yellow
• fol. 193r — Half-page grid fill in red and yellow
• fol. 193v — Full-page fill in repeating geometric design
• fol. 194r — Full-page fill in repeating geometric design
• fol. 291r — Half-page grid fill in red and yellow
• fol. 291v — Grid fill in red and yellow
• Back cover — Inscription in Arabic
• Wrap, inside, fully open — Bookplate: John Frederick Lewis
• Wrap, inside, fully open — Sotheby's 1920 sale catalog description