Koran of Muley Zaidán
        Escorial. Bibl. de San Lorenzo, 1340

 Koran of Muley Zaidán, page


This fine Koran from the private library of Sultan Muley Zaydán of Morocco came to Spain after the victory of Pedro de Para in the Barbary Sea in 1611. It is a work of great beauty, richly decorated throughout, and an outstanding example of mabsut style, with vocalizations in red, taslid and sukuns in blue. The especially handsome titles of the suras are written in gold Kufic on a blue ground. Folios 1v, 2r, 264v and 265v are splendidly illuminated with Moorish motifs. Folio 264 gives details of the origins of the copy: "[2 November 1599] executed in the Mosque of the Al-Badi Palace in Marrakech, and finished on the 13th day of the month of Rab'ia in the year 1008 after the Hegiraduring the reign of Sultan Al-Mansur,  father of Muley Zaydán."

Facsimile: 19.5 x 27 cm, 532 pp, bound in vellum. Companion volume (46 pp) by María Teresa Ortega Monasterio and María Josefa de Arcarraga Sever. Published in1996 by Testimonio.

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