Almohad Qur’ans العربية
On the edge of the criteria

The rabʿa of Prince Abu Ishaq Ibrahim

La rabʿa du prince Abu Ishaq Ibrahim · ربعة الأمير أبي إسحاق إبراهيم

Before 22 Shaʿban 635 AH (date of its endowment) · before 9 March 1238 CE

The card on the Almohad Qur’ans page
Colophon of volume 3
Colophon of volume 3 · Topkapı R. 23, after Bongianino 2024, fig. 3 · AI-enhanced
SurvivesCompleteNot digitised
Endowment
Endowed by Prince Abu Ishaq Ibrahim, al-Murtada’s brother, in Marrakesh on 22 Shaʿban 635 AH, by four identical deeds in his own hand in the margins of the four volumes
Today
Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, R. 21–24
Format
Paper; four volumes; leaves of 57.5 × 49.5 cm, among the largest Qur’ans copied in the Islamic West

Bongianino transcribed the endowment deed, in which Abu Ishaq entrusted its supervision to the jurist Abu Muhammad ʿAbd al-Wahid b. Makhluf. The Marinid Sultan Abu Yaʿqub Yusuf then re-endowed it in Fez on 20 Rabiʿ I 696 AH and had a colophon added in gold at the end of volume 4.

The Qur’an itself is undated and names no copyist. It was probably written by one of the two calligraphers of the Pink Qur’an.

CALLFRONT recordBongianino on the re-endowments (2024)
Close-ups of the script (2)Click to enlarge →
Colophon of volume 3
Colophon of volume 3 · Topkapı R. 23, after Bongianino 2024, fig. 3 · AI-enhanced
The colophon added in the Marinid period
The colophon added in the Marinid period · Topkapı R. 24, after Bongianino 2024, fig. 5 · AI-enhanced
Almohad Qur’ans

Other Qur’ans of this era

← The Seville Qur’an (Munich)The Tinmal rabʿa →
Ibn Ghattus’s Qur’an of 578 AH578 AHThe Ceuta Qur’anMuharram 587 AHThe Qur’an of Ibn Khaldun of Valencia596 AHAbu Yaʿqub’s Qur’an (Topkapı)Jumada II 599 AHThe rabʿa of al-Murtada20 Jumada II – 6 Rajab 654 AHIbn Marzuq’s Qur’an559 AHThe Qur’ans of the Banu Ghattus556–564 AHAl-Murri’s Qur’an (Dresden)Middle ten days of Shaʿban 580 AHDated Qur’ans without a copyist565–598 AHThe Malaga rabʿac. 620 AHThe Seville Qur’an (Munich)First ten days of Muharram 624 AHThe Tinmal rabʿa632 AH (copied) · 649 AH (endowed)The Pink Qur’anBefore Safar 650 AH (date of its endowment)