Browse Items (24 total)

"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…

"Durable yet easily decorated, leather presented an ideal material for protecting Islamic manuscripts. Some particularly fine bindings executed in the 15th century even featured different designs on the upper and lower covers.[1] Delicate leather…

This is an extremely rare example of a complete medieval woven silk robe. Luxurious robes were highly valued in trade and often presented as diplomatic gifts, but due to the fragility of textiles, most of what survives is fragmentary. The exchange of…

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 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 oblong pages of this palm-leaf style (pothi) book are covered with Sanskrit phrases (mantra) to treat illness, prevent disaster, and grant wellbeing. The five protective goddesses pictured here embody the five Buddhist mantra collections that…