Exhibition Guide

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Container for a Qu’ran

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    Looking with Former BMA Curator Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch

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    An Object of Comfort

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Additional Images

Container for a Qu’ran, rear view. One inscription reads, “It is Allah Who sustains the heavens and the earth,” while the other repeats the first words of the Koran: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.”

Art Object Info

Unidentified Tuareg Artist

Medium:
Copper alloy, nickel, and lead
Size:
Depth: 3 1/2"
Width: 16"
Height: 11 13/16"
Date:
Early 20th Century

This shining case is a metaphor for the light of God’s word as told by the Qu’ran held inside. Interlocking circles continue this meditation on the connection between the celestial and the terrestrial. One inscription reads, “It is Allah Who sustains the heavens and the earth,” while the other repeats the first words of the Qu’ran: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” Tuareg traders, who connected Arab trans-Saharan caravans to the sub-Saharan African market, were converted to Islam by the religious scholar Abd al-Karim al-Maghili at the turn of the 16th century.

Anonymous Gift BMA 2002.142

Container for a Qu’ran

Unidentified Tuareg Artist
Date:
Early 20th Century
Medium:
Copper alloy, nickel, and lead
Size:
Depth: 3 1/2"
Width: 16"
Height: 11 13/16"

This shining case is a metaphor for the light of God’s word as told by the Qu’ran held inside. Interlocking circles continue this meditation on the connection between the celestial and the terrestrial. One inscription reads, “It is Allah Who sustains the heavens and the earth,” while the other repeats the first words of the Qu’ran: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” Tuareg traders, who connected Arab trans-Saharan caravans to the sub-Saharan African market, were converted to Islam by the religious scholar Abd al-Karim al-Maghili at the turn of the 16th century.

Anonymous Gift BMA 2002.142