Browse Items (24 total)

This fifteenth-century copy of an important textbook in Islamic law is intricately annotated with the notes of a legal expert (Arabic faqih) in Egypt who was using the book as a teaching tool. The notes are largely case studies and problems in law,…

This Jewish marriage contract (Hebrew ketubah) details the groom"s financial obligations to the bride in the event of divorce or widowhood. Both text and decorative object, designed to be displayed in the couple"s home, it belonged to David ben…

The lacquered cover of this Shahnameh manuscript showcases a dense pattern of grape-bearing vine scrolls, which continued to be an influential motif over the following centuries. This handwritten manuscript contains the Shahnameh (literally, "Book of…

This Buddhist prayer sheet is a rare survivor among hundreds of identical prints featuring Avalokite?vara, a form of the Boddhisatva of compassion, and was produced in 947 to celebrate the annual Ghost Festival. In the early 11th century, this print…

The Mishneh Torah, not to be confused with the early medieval Mishnah seen in the eleventh-century manuscript pages appearing earlier in the exhibition, was composed by the Sephardic Jewish philosopher and physician Maimonides (1138-1204). Born in…

The prayer book "Waymarks of Benefits" (Dala"il al-Khayrat), originally composed in fifteenth-century Morocco, was frequently copied from Senegal to Turkestan, at the western and eastern extremes of the Islamic world. It was the most popular…

This late copy of the Dala'il al-Khayrat was created in Morocco, where the work was originally composed four hundred years earlier. Thousands of others were produced throughout the Islamic world, making it the most popular devotional work after the…

"The dispersed “Blue Qur’an” to which this folio belongs is one of the most famous surviving Qur’an manuscripts. The text of this outstanding Qur’an is copied in gold ink outlined in black on a deep indigo-blue parchment. Small silver…

“The pen is a key that opens the door to the necessities of life.” This group of Ottoman scribal implements consists of three pairs of steel scissors and a steel rule all inlaid with gold; a silver and gilt pen box and inkwell; two pen rests,…

"Moveable type printing was invented in China around 1045, but was never practiced on a large scale as the number of Chinese script characters (about 10,000) made it impractical. In Korea, moveable type was used more widely, especially from the 14th…