The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur'an - Chester Beatty's Digital Collections

Object Information

Manuscript

Object no:: Is 1431

Title:: The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur'an

Calligrapher and production place:: Abu’l-Hasan `Ali ibn Hilal, known as Ibn al-Bawwab
Baghdad

Production date:: 1000-1001 (391H)

Dimensions:: 183 mm x 145 mm x 58 mm (height x width x depth)

Material:: Paper (material) Pigment (material) Ink (material) Gold pigment

Language:: Arabic (language)

Script type:: Naskh script Rayhan script

Collection:: Islamic Collection

Document type:: Manuscript

Object name:: Codex Qur'an

Description:: The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur’an was produced in Baghdad in the year 1000. Its smooth cursive calligraphy is the work of Abu’l Hasan `Ali ibn Hilal (d. 1022), more commonly known as Ibn al-Bawwab (meaning "son of the doorkeeper"). Ibn al-Bawwab is renowned as one of Islam’s greatest master-calligraphers, and this manuscript is held to be the only Qur’an genuinely written in his hand. It is also important for being one of the earliest dated Qur’ans copied on paper (as opposed to parchment) and one of the earliest written in a cursive script. In the year 1000, Baghdad was ruled nominally by the `Abbasid caliphs, who were in turn controlled by the Buyid dynasty. While this Qur'an is not documented as a royal commission, Ibn al-Bawwab had connections to the Buyid rulers: before coming to Baghdad, he had served as chief librarian for a Buyid amir's collection in Shiraz, Iran. Codex, ink, colours and gold on paper, 282 folios, Arabic text in cursive script (identified as naskh or rayhan), with illuminated double-pages (ff. 6v-8r, 284v-5r), sura-headings and verse markers throughout, complete Qur'an, colophon (f. 284r) signed `Ali ibn Hilal (known as Ibn al-Bawwab) and dated 391H, Baghdad, Iraq, 1000-1001.

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