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Illuminated manuscripts

 Subject
Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus

Found in 194 Collections and/or Records:

Or Ms 150: القرآن al-Qur’ān, 1135 A.H., 1722 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 150
Scope and Contents A complete copy of the Qur'an.There are inscriptions in the margins in Persian indicating the endings of a sūrah. The text of the Qur'an is preceded and followed by a short treatise of six folios on tajwīd (the correct recitation of the Qur'an), a sā‘at-nāmah (for consulting proper hours), and a twelve folio fāl-nāmah (containing rules for taking omens from the...
Dates: 1135 A.H.; 1722 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 151: القرآن al-Qur’ān, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 151
Scope and Contents

A complete copy of the Qur'an. Written in extremely small but clear script.


First two pages richly illuminated in gold and colour.

Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia
Or Ms 153 and Or Ms 172 (bindings)
Or Ms 153 and Or Ms 172 (bindings)

Or Ms 153: القرآن al-Qur’ān, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 153
Scope and Contents This copy of the Qur'an consists of the following surahs (chapters): 1, 6, 36, 44, 48, 55, 56 , 67, 78-114. On the last twenty folios there are more chapters written irrespective of order, and mixed with these are quotations, possibly in Turkish, from Shaykh Muḥyi al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ‘Alī b. Muḥammad al-‘Arabī's (d. 638 A.H., 1240 C.E.) commentary upon the Qur'an. There are also a few prayers and some notes on the stature of the Prophet,...
Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 154: القرآن al-Qur’ān, undated

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 154
Scope and Contents

A collection of a few sūrahs (chapters) of the Qur'an, beginning with sūrah 19, entitled 'al-Maryam', in which case the sūrah title has been written upside down. This manuscript may well pertain to the Morisco community of Islamic Spain or Morocco.

Dates: undated
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 155: أنوار التنزيل وأسرار التأويل Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-taʼwīl, undated (extant by 16th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 155
Scope and Contents

A complete copy of the well-known commentary upon the Qur'an of al-Bayḍāwī (Naṣīr al-Dīn ‘Abd-Allāh b. ‘Umar). This copy has numerous notes transcribed on the margins. The names of the surahs (chapters) are written on the left top corner of each page.


Frontispiece illuminated with gold.

Dates: undated (extant by 16th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 156: الجامع الصحيح al-Jāmi‘ al-ṣaḥīḥ, undated copy (original text composed 9th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 156
Scope and Contents

A copy of the famous collection of ḥadīth (reports of teh sayings and deeds of Prophet Muḥammad) by Abū ‘Abd-Allāh Muḥammad b. Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī, (d. 256 A.H., 869 C.E.).


Four frontispieces illuminated with gold.

Dates: undated copy (original text composed 9th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 161: الآثار الباقيه عن القرون الخاليه al-Āthār al-bāqiyah ‘an al-qurūn al-khāliyah, 707 A.H., 1307 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 161
Scope and Contents This important work by the Persian polymath Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, who is better known as Abū Rayḥān "al-Bīrūnī" al-Khwārazmī (d. 440 A.H., 1048 C.E.) was written originally in circa 390 A.H. (1000 A.D.). The manuscript has a distinct multi-ethnic and multi-confessional flavour. Al-Bīrūnī, who calculated on the basis of measurements he took in the Punjab plain that the world was round, describes the systems of calculating time used by the known races of the world, and their associated...
Dates: 707 A.H.; 1307 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 172: مختصر کتاب الحصن الحصين Mukhtaṣar Kitāb al-ḥiṣn al-ḥaṣīn, undated (original text compiled 14-15th cent. C.E.)

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 172
Scope and Contents

A work on Muslim devotion, according to the tenets of the Sunnīs. It is an abridgment of the Kitāb al-Ḥiṣn al-Ḥaṣīn of the celebrated theologian Shams al-Dīn Abū al-Khayr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Jazarī, who was born in 751 A.H., 1350 C.E. at Damascus, resided at Brusa and afterwards at Cairo, and died at Shiraz at the age of 82 in 833 A.H., 1429 C.E. He was a follower of the school of al-Imām al-Shāfi‘ī.


Illuminated frontispiece.

Dates: undated (original text compiled 14-15th cent. C.E.)
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 185: تاريخ گزيده Ta'rīkh-i Guzīdah, 993 A.H., 1584 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 185
Scope and Contents

A general history from the earliest times to 730 A.H. (1329 C.E.), the year, as it is stated in the preface, when it was compiled by Ḥamd-allāh b. 'Abī Bakr b. Aḥmad b. Naṣr Mustaufī Qazwīnī (d. 750 A.H., 1349 C.E.), and the present name, meaning "the select history" was given to it.


The first two pages and the frontispiece are richly illuminated; gold-lined throughout.

Dates: 993 A.H.; 1584 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

Or Ms 186: روضته الصفاء Rawz̤at al-ṣafāʼ, 1006 A.H., 1598 C.E.

 Item
Identifier: Or Ms 186
Scope and Contents A well-known general history in seven volumes, from the earliest times to the time of the author, Sayyid Muḥammad b. Burhān al-Dīn Khawand-Shāh (d. 903 A.H., 1498 C.E.). Most of the work was written by the author himself, but was completed by his grandson Ghiyās̱ al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥāmid al-Dīn Khwand-Amīr (d. 942 A.H., 1535 C.E.). This manuscript includes volumes 1-3 of the work, each with an illuminated frontispiece.At the beginning of the manuscript there is a contents page in...
Dates: 1006 A.H.; 1598 C.E.
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia

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