Browse Items (101 total)

A line drawing of a link/loop stitch sewing on an Islamic book. The image features six quires (gatherings of folded pages) stacked horizontally, one on top of the other. The quires are connected at the spine by two seams of link/loop stitch running…

This tiny hymnal (Greek, irmologion), a collection of Christian religious songs, may have been produced in Istanbul. The thriving city, formerly known as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire until 1453, was a vibrant centre for manuscript…

HIDDEN STORIES: GLOBAL HISTORY, LOCAL NETWORKS Virtual Symposium: February 24-25, 2022 Join the Aga Khan Museum for a virtual symposium celebrating the exhibitionHidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads, featuring books, scrolls, manuscript…

This Hebrew Bible was written and decorated in 1307 in Christian-ruled Toledo at a time when Jewish life in Spain was becoming increasingly difficult, culminating in the final expulsion of Jews as well as Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.…

A closely packed cluster of sages surrounds the boy at lower left, offering knowledge and advice to the young prince. The diverse group of sheiks and ascetics includes Iranian, Uzbek and Mughal Indian scholars, the books on their laps and writing…

This unbound volume is among the earliest printed books produced in the Mediterranean region. Printed in Istanbul in 1493 by brothers David and Samuel Ibn Nahmias, the four volumes of this Hebrew-language treatise concern devotional, ritualistic,…

Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BCE) is known under many names, including the Persian ‘Eskandar’ depicted in manuscripts from Iran and Uzbekistan. His Macedonian origins and association with Greek culture — above all through his teacher,…

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Persian, Indian, and European forms converge in this stunning painting of Alexander the Great (Persian, Eskandar). Seated in a pose that resembles that of the Mughal ruler Humayun, Eskandar wears a helmet engraved with the image of a horse - perhaps…

The contents (Sanskrit text and Hindu iconography), materials (Islamic burnished paper and Indian textiles), and format (Islamic-style binding) of this manuscript containing the Hindu Bhagavad Gita all illuminate the fecund encounter of Persian and…

This handwritten Tibetan scroll contains a story collection which, like many tales-within-tales, begins with a challenge: a prince is tasked with bringing a particular corpse from a remote cemetery in the mountains, but he must not say a word to it.…

Inner Asia is famous for the jewelry of its more than 30 Turkmen tribes, produced in silver, decorated with talismanic inscriptions, and adorned with carnelian or turquoise. Each element--metal, writing, and precious stones--is carefully chosen to…

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…

Merchandise traded along the Silk Roads included jewels, spices, salt, tea, and - above all - silk, carried by caravans of camels able to endure the desert's heat and lack of water. The lustrous wool carpet design seen here is called shadda, a very…

The rectangular form of this porcelain box to hold writing tools, with a stepped base and gently curved lid adorned with roundels containing stylized Arabic inscriptions, suggests that the scribes who used it served the Muslim bureaucrats or…

Both horse and camel appear in the striking images of this conical bowl, where a rider is painted at the center, surrounded by a merchant caravan, while the bowl's sides depict six camels laden with bags, led by an attendant. The camels almost seem…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…

The shifting tastes of Ottoman patrons can be seen in these two bindings, whose covers feature a distinctive pendant extending from a central medallion. Often beautifully decorated with tooled, stamped, painted, and filigreed leather, some Ottoman…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…