Section 13 of the Qur'an of Nur al-Din
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The military leader Nur al-Din had this volume of a Qur’an manuscript, amongst others, made for the madrasa that he founded and named for himself in Damascus. The richly decorated text originally comprised sixty volumes, a testament to its intended use in daily readings and to his generosity. But Jerusalem was Nur al-Din’s ultimate, unrealized goal, and it fell to his successor, Saladin, to recapture the city and fill its sanctuaries with similarly rich Qur’an manuscripts. Contemporary chroniclers relate that Saladin had "copies, portions, and venerated sections of the Qur’an raised up on lecterns and placed on shelves in view of visitors."
Artwork Details
- Title: Section 13 of the Qur'an of Nur al-Din
- Calligrapher: Calligraphy by ‘Ali bin Ja’far bin Asad (active Damascus, mid-12th century)
- Date: A.H. Dhu’l-Hijja 562 (September 1167)
- Geography: Made in Damascus, Syria
- Culture: Syrian
- Medium: Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper and parchment
- Dimensions: 7 5/8 × 6 3/8 in. (19.4 × 16.2 cm)
- Classification: Manuscripts and Illuminations
- Credit Line: By kind permission of the Keir Collection on long-term loan by Ranros Universal SA to the Dallas Museum of Art (ex. Keir Coll. VII 3)
- Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters