Olga Yastrebova

St. Petersburg University, St. Petersburg, Russia

E-mail: o.yastrebova@spbu.ru

An Early Binding from the Collection of Muhammad ‘Ayyad al-Tantawi at St. Petersburg State University Library

Abstract. The article studies the artistic binding of one of the manuscripts brought to St. Petersburg by Muhammad b. Ayyad al-Tantawi (1810—1861), Arab language professor whose collection is stored at St. PetersburgUniversity. This binding, now attached to a 16th-century manuscript, is similar to two other bindings (from Berlin State Library and Khalili Collection), all three seem to have been produced for a multi-volume manuscript, most probably, the Qur’an. Analysis of the artistic and technological features and of artistic analogies found in 5th—8th / 11th—14th century book illumination allows to suggest that the three bindings were produced in Iraq or Iran and could be contemporary with the Qur’anic fragment that is contained in one of them.

Keywords: binding, codicology, Tantawi collection

Acknowledgements. Supported by the research grant from the Russian Scientific Foundation, project No. 23-28-01748 “On-line Manuscript Database as a Research Tool: Electronic Publication and Study of Arabic Manuscripts Collection of St. Petersburg University Professor Sheikh Muhammad al-Tantawi (1810—1861) in the Oriental Department of the Scientific Library of SPbU”.

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2024-30-1-3-9

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 Received by the Editorial Board: 08.09.2023