Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, MS Is 1431

Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab Facsimile Edition

Our price

More Buying Choices

Request Info

The Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab is named for its scribe and illuminator, one of Islam's master calligraphers. He signed the manuscript, dating his work to the Islamic year 391 (1000 or 1001 CE) and localizing its production to Baghdad. The splendid book marks a turning point in the history of the manuscript Koran, being the earliest surviving dated Koran written on paper in Naskh script. It opens and closes with fully painted framed pages, six at the beginning and four at the end, featuring geometric and foliate patterns and interlace designs.

The Koran ("recitation") is the Islamic book of scripture, understood as the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. It comprises 114 suras (chapters), which vary in length from just a few verses to pages long.

Dazzling Framed Pages

The first two openings (pairs of facing pages) are fully painted, with geometric and spiraling floral and foliate motifs engulfing the text, written in gold outlined in black or unpainted paper outlined in gold (fols. 6v-7r) or gold with concentric black and white or white and black outlines (fols. 7v-8r). The text informs the reader that the Koran contains 77,460 words and 321,250 letters.

The next opening is purely ornamental, featuring a composition of intersecting circles and lotus flower motifs (fols. 8v-9r). This opening finds its counterpart at the end of the book, where a pair of ornamented pages is dominated by intersecting half-circles and torch-like motifs (fols. 284v-285r).

Firsts in Material and Style

Korans from the first centuries of Islam are written on parchment in the angular Kufic script, and they are commonly in landscape format (with pages wider than they are tall). The support of the Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab is polished paper—probably originally white and now a light sepia color—with pages taller than they are wide. The main script, Naskh, is the highly legible rounded script that came to replace Kufic as the preferred script for Korans.

A Famous Scribe

Ibn al-Bawwab, a nickname meaning "son of the doorman," is reported to have penned thirty-six Koran manuscripts, but the Koran in the Chester Beatty Library is the only one to come down to us. His contemporaries praised his writing, and the present manuscript attests to his finesse and skill in the art of calligraphy: his letters are both rigorously well-proportioned and gracefully flowing.

A Revealing Correction

Although he made very few errors, Ibn al-Bawwab corrected his manuscript as he wrote. The most telling mistake was remedied by covering a repeated verse with a painted ornamental band (bottom of fol. 40r). The style and technique of that band reveal that it, which must have been the work of the scribe, stems from the hand of the book's illuminator, thus securing the attribution of the illumination to Ibn al-Bawwab.

A Treasure of Chester Beatty Library

Khushraqmkhan Gujratt recorded his ownership of the volume in the eighteenth century (fol. 184r). The manuscript, as a part of the substantial library of the Irish American bibliophile A. Chester Beatty (1875-1968), was bequeathed to the Irish nation and is now housed in Dublin Castle. It is preserved in a modern European binding.

We have 2 facsimiles of the manuscript "Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab":

Request Info / Price
Manuscript book description compiled by Elizabeth C. Teviotdale.
Please Read
International social justice movements and the debates that ensued prompted us to start considering the contents of our website from a critical point of view. This has led us to acknowledge that most of the texts in our database are Western-centered. We have asked the authors of our content to be aware of the underlying racial and cultural bias in many scholarly sources, and to try to keep in mind multiple points of view while describing the manuscripts. We also recognize that this is yet a small, first step towards fighting inequality.

If you notice any trace of racist or unjust narratives in our communications, please help us be part of the change by letting us know.

#1 Le Coran. Sérigraphies originales par Zenderoudi

Paris: Club du Livre, 1980

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre

+ 8

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
Facsimile edition by Club du Livre
  • Commentary (English, French) by Storm Rice, David; Berque, Jacques; Grosjean, Jean
  • Full-size color reproduction of the entire original document, Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab: the facsimile attempts to replicate the look-and-feel and physical features of the original document; pages are trimmed according to the original format; the binding might not be consistent with the current document binding.

Our Price

More Buying Choices

Request Info

#2 Der Koran des Ibn al-Bawwab

Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt (ADEVA), 1981

+ 2

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by ADEVA
Facsimile edition by ADEVA

+ 2

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by ADEVA
Facsimile edition by ADEVA

+ 2

Quran of Ibn al-Bawwab, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Facsimile edition by ADEVA
Facsimile edition by ADEVA
  • Commentary (Arabic, French) by Storm Rice, David
  • Full-size color reproduction of the entire original document, Koran of Ibn al-Bawwab: the facsimile attempts to replicate the look-and-feel and physical features of the original document; pages are trimmed according to the original format; the binding might not be consistent with the current document binding.

Binding

Leather with half-leather book case.

Our Price

More Buying Choices

Request Info