Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting from the Morgan

Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting from the Morgan

The Morgan Library & Museum is internationally acclaimed for its collection of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, so it may come as a surprise that the museum also possesses a number of important Islamic manuscripts and single pages dating from the late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. They include such treasures as a thirteenth-century treatise on animals and their uses, regarded by some experts as one of the greatest of all Islamic manuscripts, and an illustrated Turkish translation of the life of the celebrated Persian poet and mystic Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, the Morgan copy of which is the more extensively illustrated of the two known to exist.

Along with more than fifty additional manuscripts, single pages, and beautifully written Qur'ans spanning a millenium, these spectacular books will go on view for the first time in a single exhibition. Several works will be disbound, allowing visitors to view a selection of miniatures from them.

This exhibition is supported in part by a generous grant from The Hagop Kevorkian Fund and by the Janine Luke and Melvin R. Seiden Fund for Exhibitions and Publications.

A Young Lady Recling After a Bath | Leaf from the Read Persian Album |

Herat (Afghanistan), 1590s | By Muhammad Mu’min

Exhibit is open from October 21, 2011 through January 29, 2012

Click here for full exhibit information.