Browse Items (144 total)

"The subject of this single-page drawing has been most often described as a learned man, but he also possesses qualities that may indicate he is a dignified Sufi. However, he wears rings on both little fingers, which might not reflect the modesty of…

"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…

"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…

“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,…

"Shallow silver bowl, not quite complete. Central inscribed roundel, in the centre of an equal-armed cross running from below rim. Arms of the cross decorated with chased star motif. Central roundel contains six pointed star, with eight-petalled…

A modern painting from a collection of Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh's tryptic sets of paintings depicting the 13th century epic poem titled "Conference of the Birds" by Attar of Nishapur. In this scene, the Garden of Paradise, or Jannat is depicted through…

Spiritual travel is experienced through sung prayer as well as through map image. This choir book or "antiphoner" includes chants for the Christian Holy Week of Easter. So heavy that it can only be moved by two people, this enormous book would have…

"Curved gold dummy buckle or clasp of elongated triangular form. The loop is decorated with cloisonné garnet work, comprising one band of a running step-pattern, and one of plain rectangular and keystone cells. The buckle has a cut-away dummy…

"The earliest published plans for the Dictionary are the transcripts of a conference held in Toronto on 21-22 March 1969; these were published as Computers and Old English concordances, and while concordances were one of the two main topics of…