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Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

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Illuminated frontispiece

AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: unknown

CREATED/PUBLISHED
1500-50

NOTES
This illuminated frontispiece is one of two pages that would have formed the opening double-page composition of a manuscript. It is possible that it belonged to a Qur'an. The title would have appeared in the top and bottom rectangular panels. The central medallion may have contained the beginning of the first chapter of the Qur'an entitled al-Fatihah (The Opening). It also may have served as a space for the work's dedication to a patron or blessings upon its owner.

The illumination found here is typical of Qur'an frontispieces made in Herat (modern-day Afghanistan) ca. 1500-1550 (see James 1992b: 116-7, cat. no. 30). The central gold medallion and rectangular panels are set in polychrome scrolls with white and orange flowers on a blue background. These panels are framed by an outer border composed of black cartouches alternating with gold quatrefoils on a red background. The remaining outer space is decorated with overlapping blue and gold lappets.

Illuminators during the first half of the 16th century experimented with the double-page illuminated frontispiece. For example, the artist Shaykhzadah began using black backgrounds and invented new arabesque or scrollwork motifs. These motifs not only appeared in frontispieces, but were used as architectural ornamentation in manuscript paintings (Soudavar 1992: 193, 73c). Such decorative connections highlight the close relationship between illuminators and painters, who collaborated in the production of illuminated and illustrated manuscripts.

SUBJECT
Islamic manuscripts
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Arabic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy
Arabic script calligraphy

MEDIUM
23.7 (w) x 38.3 (h) cm

CALL NUMBER
1-85-154.87

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C. 20540

DIGITAL ID
ascs 131
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.131

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