Lapis and Gold - Exploring Chester Beatty's Ruzbihan Qur'an (Relié)

Produced in the city of Shiraz, in south-west Iran, the Chester Beatty Library's sixteenth-century Ruzbihan Qur'an is one of the finest Islamic manuscripts known. In terms of both materials and workmanship, it is exquisite. Lapis lazuli and gold, the two most expensive pigments available, are used on every page, while the rendering of the decoration is unusually and breathtakingly fine. This is the most detailed and comprehensive study of any Islamic manuscript to date - and it is a manuscript well deserving of such scrutiny.
This fine manuscript, copied by the renowned calligrapher Ruzbihan Muhammad al-Tab'i al-Shirazi, is today one of the great treasures of the Chester Beatty Library, in Dublin. Once the private library of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), it is today an art museum - and one of Ireland's national cultural institutions - with an extraordinary collection of manuscripts, rare books and other treasures from Europe, Asia and Africa.