Reposted from the web

Summary: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia presents objects tied to Muslim art, manuscripts, architecture, and everyday culture across many regions. This article follows selected collection highlights while preserving the original photos, captions, and museum details.

Depictions of Mecca (tianfangtu) are a key part of Islamic art. They appear on textiles, paintings, and tiles, with each region having its own style.

19th-century embroidery from North India.



1861 illustration from the Ottoman Empire.





North India, 19th century.



Ottoman Turkey, 1846.



Ottoman Turkey, 1794-5.



Ottoman Turkey, 18th century.



Ottoman Turkey, 1752-53.



Ottoman Turkey, 1771-2.



Depiction of Mecca (tianfangtu), Ottoman Turkey, 1795-6.



Ottoman Turkey, 1837-8.



Ottoman Turkey, 1801-2.



Ottoman North Africa, 19th century.



Ottoman Turkey, 1856-7.



A 1738 manuscript written on fabric from India, featuring floral designs with a distinct local Indian style.







17th-century silk embroidery of the Kaaba cover (tianfang manzhang) from Ottoman Turkey.









The museum's centerpiece is a painted wooden room from Damascus, dated 1820-21, which shows the typical late Ottoman Syrian decorative style.













A pulpit (minbar) from a prince's palace of the Asaf Jahi dynasty in Hyderabad, South India, dated 1879-80. It is carved with Urdu praise for the Prophet, along with flowers, parrots, and plant patterns.











Hats and turbans of the Acehnese people in Sumatra.





Hats of the Dayak people in Sarawak, Borneo.



Hats of the Malay people on the Malay Peninsula.



Wax-resist dyed (batik) dua-yi turbans from the Malay Archipelago, late 19th to early 20th century. Before the 19th century, men in the Malay Archipelago rarely wore hats and mostly wore turbans.











Specialized scripture boxes (jingxia) from the Malay Archipelago: Aceh, Sumatra, 19th-20th century; Malay Peninsula, late 19th century; Terengganu, Malay Peninsula, 19th century.







Blue and white porcelain with Arabic calligraphy (jingzi) from the Ming and Qing dynasties.





















Traditional Hui Muslim calligraphy art (jingzi hua), where the peach-shaped tray design is a classic Xi'an style. The first piece was created by Imam Liu Junlian of Xi'an in the 1950s, and it is the most exquisite of these few works. You can buy printed versions of these calligraphy artworks at the museum's gift shop, and I think they are well worth collecting.



















Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (reigned 1848-1896), the fourth monarch of the Persian Qajar dynasty, and his eldest son Mass'oud Mirza Zell-e Soltan (1850-1918) once ordered a large amount of Chinese export porcelain. These porcelains were mainly Canton enamel (guangcai), along with some Canton blue porcelain and Fitzhugh porcelain.

Canton enamel (guangcai), short for Guangzhou gold-woven colored porcelain, was a famous export porcelain from Guangzhou during the mid-to-late Qing dynasty. During the mid-Qing dynasty, porcelain merchants in Guangzhou began shipping white porcelain blanks from Jingdezhen to Guangzhou, where they hired Jingdezhen craftsmen to perform low-temperature overglaze painting. Most Canton enamel pieces feature a gold-rimmed circle in the center, with the surrounding area filled in a 'full-coverage' style with various flowers, fruits, birds, insects, figures, and landscapes, often including logos specified by foreign merchants.

The first three Canton enamel pieces are all inscribed with the Islamic calendar year 1297, which is 1880 AD.











The Fitzhugh porcelain plate is inscribed with the Islamic calendar year 1295, which is 1878 AD. Fitzhugh porcelain is named after Thomas Fitzhugh, a director of the British East India Company's resident committee in Guangzhou in the 1760s. He ordered many pieces in this style between 1787 and 1800, making it the most popular export porcelain during the Jiaqing reign, a trend that continued into the Daoguang reign. The most prominent feature of Fitzhugh porcelain is a central medallion pattern surrounded by various traditional Chinese elements.







The museum gift shop features works by Muslim artists from various countries, replicas of museum artifacts, and delicate, small creative items; it is the best museum shop for Islamic art I have ever visited.



















Exquisite wood-carved calligraphy crafts at the gift shop. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia holds a large manuscript collection, including 92 handwritten Qurans and related works from different regions and periods. This article preserves the original museum captions, photos, names, and manuscript details in clear English.

The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia has the best collection of Islamic art in Southeast Asia. I visited Kuala Lumpur again at the end of 2024 to take another look at the handwritten manuscripts from different regions and eras.

This museum likely holds the largest collection of handwritten Quran manuscripts in Southeast Asia. The collection spans a thousand years, from the 8th to the 19th century. It covers regions from Andalusia, North Africa, Turkey, and Persia to China and the Malay Archipelago. You can see parchment from over a thousand years ago, as well as rare manuscripts from Southern Thailand and Mindanao. It is definitely worth a visit. I am sharing 38 early manuscript pages and 92 handwritten books that were on display at the museum in 2024.

Early parchment in Kufic script

Fatimid Caliphate, Egypt, 10th century



The Two Holy Cities, 8th century



North Africa, 9th century



North Africa, 8th century



North Africa, 8th century



North Africa, 8th century





Near East or North Africa, 850-950 AD



Damascus or Jerusalem, mid-8th century



North Africa or Near East, 10th century



Andalusia or North Africa, 13th-14th century



North Africa, 9th-10th century



Andalusia, 10th century

Andalusia, early 13th century



Andalusia or North Africa, 12th century



While North Africa still commonly used parchment for manuscripts, the Andalusia region began using paper widely after the 12th century. In 1151, the first paper mill in Andalusia was established in Xativa (in present-day southeastern Spain). The handwritten manuscripts on pink paper that exist today are said to use paper produced by this mill. These manuscripts may have been commissioned by royalty or nobles in Granada or Valencia. They feature large chapter headings and gold rose markings.

Andalusia or North Africa, 12th century



Andalusia, 13th century



Andalusia, 13th century



Seville or Xativa, Al-Andalus, 13th century





Andalusia or North Africa, 12th century



North Africa, 9th-10th century



Al-Andalus or North Africa, 12th-13th century



North Africa or the Near East, 8th century



North Africa, 9th-10th century



Early parchment manuscripts from North Africa and Al-Andalus were mostly horizontal. As paper from Baghdad spread across the Middle East, more manuscripts began using vertical paper. This change led to more decorative styles and more delicate calligraphy.

Seljuk Empire, Persia, 12th century



Persia, possibly Shiraz, 16th century



India, 15th century



Persia, 12th century



Anatolia or Central Asia, 1335



South Asia

Delhi Sultanate, 15th-16th century



Delhi Sultanate, 16th century



Central India, 16th century



Delhi Sultanate, 15th century



Mughal Empire, 1775



Mughal Empire, 18th century



Kashmir, 18th century



Kashmir, 19th century



North India or Kashmir, 1831



Kashmir, 18th century



Kashmir, 18th to 19th century.





Kashmir, early 19th century.



Kashmir, early 19th century.



Northern India, 1893-1894.



African region.

North Africa, 16th century.





North Africa, 19th century.



Harar, Ethiopia, 1800. Harar is an important center for the faith in eastern Ethiopia and is known as the fourth holiest city of the faith. The old city contains 82 mosques and 9 gongbei, and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006. Because of long-term trade with the Arabian Peninsula, the faith flourished in the old city by the 10th century and became widespread after the 13th century. Harar became the capital of the Adal Sultanate after 1520 and the capital of the Emirate of Harar after 1647. In the 18th century, Harar was an important center for the faith in the Ethiopia and Somalia region.



Sudan, 1857-1858.



Sudan, 19th century.



Morocco or Andalusia, 13th century.



North Africa, 18th century.



North Africa, 19th century.



Comoros Islands, East Africa, 1824. The Comoros Islands are located in the southwest Indian Ocean, between the African continent and Madagascar. Arab and Persian merchants often came here to trade. The faith spread across the islands starting in the 10th century, and several sultanates were established on the islands after the 16th century.



Caucasus region.

South Caucasus or Dagestan, 19th century.



Dagestan, North Caucasus, 1780.



Dagestan, North Caucasus, 19th century



Persia

Ilkhanate of Persia, 1291



Ilkhanate of Persia, 1304



Persia, 1684



Persia, 17th century



Turkmen people of Persia, 1483-1484



Isfahan, Safavid Dynasty of Persia, 1708



Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 19th century



Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 1862



Persia, 1700



Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 19th century



Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 1845-1846



Shiraz, Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 19th century



Safavid Dynasty of Persia, 16th century



Shiraz, Safavid Dynasty of Persia, 16th century



Persia, 1684



Qajar Dynasty of Persia, 1842. The donor was a soap merchant named Haji Aqa Muhammad.



Uzbekistan

Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 18th century



Ottoman Dynasty

Ottoman Turkey, 1848



Ottoman Turkey, 1869



Ottoman Turkey, 1836-1837



Ottoman Turkey, 17th century



Ottoman Turkey, 1775



Ottoman Turkey, 1840



Ottoman Turkey, 1803-1804



Ottoman Turkey, 1862-1863



Ottoman Turkey, 1748-1749



Ottoman Turkey, 1850



Ottoman Turkey, 1852



Ottoman Turkey, 1843-1844



Mamluk Sultanate

Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt or Syria, 14th-15th century



Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt, 14th century



Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt, 15th century



Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt or Syria, 14th century



Mamluk Sultanate, Egypt, 14th century



China

Copied in 1730, with a traditional scripture case











Said to be a hand-copied scripture from the Ming Dynasty





China, 17th century





China, 17th century



Malay Peninsula, 18th-19th century



Terengganu, Malaysia, 19th century



Indonesia

Java, 19th century



Possibly Indonesia, 1818.



Possibly Indonesia, 1818.



Java Island, 1845.



Possibly Cirebon, Java Island, 19th century.



Java, 19th century



Java, 19th century



Java, 19th century



Aceh, Sumatra Island, 19th century.



Aceh, Sumatra Island, 18th to 19th century.



Thailand.

Handwritten scripture from Pattani Province, Thailand, 19th century.







Philippines.

Mindanao Island, Philippines, 1882. view all