Author
The calligrapher who wrote this work is unknown; The artist who executed his drawings is Sayyed Suleiman Qasim Pasha.
Author Original
الخطاط الذي دوّن هذا العمل غير معروف؛ أما الرسام الذي نفذ رسوماته فهو سيِّد سليمان قاسم باشا
Publication Date
11th / 17th century
Publication Place
-
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
Subject
Aharli coated paper, black ink, watercolour, gold inlay, leather binding.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الطول: 38 سم؛ العرض: 26 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
1974
Record ID
object;ISL;tr;Mus01;30;ar
Library Location
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
Date
11th / 17th century
Notes
The work was written in Turkish on elegant, polished Aharli paper, 13 lines per page, written in large cursive script. The text was written in black ink within golden margins, and the names of notable people were written in red ink. The spaces between the lines of text are covered with gold paint with black edges. The six volumes of the Biography of the Prophet tell the story of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the history of Islam until his death. The volume located in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts is a copy of the fourth volume and contains 545 pages. There are 193 miniatures in total depicting the themes included. The first page, which is the title page of the book, was executed in bright colors and covered with gold. The illustrations on the miniature pages are located between two lines of text at the top of the page and two lines at the bottom. The volume's brown leather cover is decorated with an oval medallion with palmate pendants and corner ornaments. Volume Four begins with the birth of the Prophet's daughter, Fatima, and follows the story of her marriage to Ali, then Muhammad's miracles, his love for Talha and Hamza, stories of heroic Muslim women, the preparation for the Battle of Badr, a description of the battle itself, Muhammad's wounding in the Battle of Uhud, the killing of the Prophet's uncle Hamza, the distribution of spoils of war, the story of Ka'b and his daughter, and the killing of an enemy. Muslims, Sufyan bin Khalid. The biography of the Prophet was prepared in six volumes, in the palace workshop, by order of Sultan Murad II in the 10th / 16th century. One volume of it was lost, while the rest of the volumes are currently distributed in libraries around the world. The manuscript in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts is a copy (made in the 11th / 17th century) of the manuscript of the fourth volume of the Prophet’s biography in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland (T. 419). The miniatures are considered a typical example of the style of that period.
Sample Text
Sevgi Kutluay “Biography of the Prophet” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tr;Mus01;30;ar
