Illuminated Arabic Ms. Of The Koran
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Mar 1909
name: label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department Of War
notes: label: Notes
content: Identified by Annabel Gallop, The British Library: Qur'an, lacking beginning and end. In Arabic. Cream European paper; binding threads visible; cloth covers. Text in black ink; fine, strong, vigorous hand with a pronounced slope to the left; 13 lines per page; text frames are a variety of symmetrical permutations of red and black lines, including black-red-red-black (beg); black-red-red-red-black (mid); and black-red-black and black-red-black-red-black (end). Verse markers are red or yellow roundels outlined in black ink. The one surah heading seen (S. al-Anbiya, Q.21) is in red ink, with multiple-knotted ta marbuta, set within rectangular frames of double-ruled red ink lines. The opening basmalah has a ruled sin-mim ligature in red ink, with alternating red and black ink for each word. Juz' indicated in the margin with star-shaped roundels in red and black inscribed al-juz', with the first words in the text in red. Other marginal ornaments are decorative roundels with petals or layers of chevrons in red, black, ochre and reserved white, with the appropriate place in the text marked with a composite 3-roundel, but as these are not all labelled it is difficult to work out what they indicate. On this double page, at the outer corners of the text frames are small bird-like scalloped finials oriented diagonally outwards. According to the Annual Report, U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution (1909), 'An illuminated Arabic manuscript of the Koran, captured in the Philippines by Capt. Charles F. Bates, U.S. Army, was transferred from the Dept. of War. It shows the effect of hard usage by the Mohammedan [sic] natives of Mindanao' (p.29); a later mention in the same publication says 'Fragmentary – copy of the Koran, taken from a hostile Moro cotta near Masibay, Mindanao, P.I. (49847)' (p.102) . There are enough surviving illuminated marginal ornaments to suggest that this MS would originally have had decorated frames, at least around the opening surahs and perhaps also at the end. References: Gallop, Annabel Teh. "Islamic Manuscripts from the Philippines in U.S. Collections: a preliminary listing, including two printed Qur'ans." Our Own Voice Literary Ezine: Filipinos in the Diaspora (April 2011): n. pag. Web. Retrieved from http://www.oovrag.com/bibliography/bibliography13.shtml . Gallop, Annabel Teh. "Qur'an Manuscripts from Mindanao in U.S. Collections." Our Own Voice Literary Ezine: Filipinos in the Diaspora (April 2011): n. pag. Web. Retrieved from http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2011a-1.shtml . Gallop, Annabel Teh (2021): Qur'an manuscripts from Mindanao: collecting histories, art and materiality, South East Asia Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2021.1895674
label: Record Last Modified
content: 4 Feb 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Masibay - Moro Cotta Near, Mindanao, Philippines
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Moro
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 049847
label: USNM Number
content: E253691-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Koran