Qur’anic Writing Board
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Object Label
ART OF VIRTUE
Art can express our most important values. For the youngest of students to the most senior of elders, art can provide a vision of the ideal world.
This writing board is evidence and expression of devotion and discipline, and a connection to an international community connected by Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. In Sudan, students historically used wood writing boards to practice their Arabic calligraphy and to help them memorize Qur'anic verses. The text written on the front of this board is a verse from the Qur'an, sura 97, which addresses the night of the first revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad.
The Lega figure called sakimatwemtwe, or "the man with many heads," represents the qualities of equity, wisdom, and discernment that enable its owner to see all sides of an issue and have knowledge of all things going on around him. It would have been owned by a man who belonged to Kindi, the highest level of Bwami, a hierarchical organization through which Lega initiates advance from one state of knowledge to the next.
Caption
Qur’anic Writing Board, late 19th or early 20th century. Wood, ink, string, 31 7/8 x 11 x 1 in. (81 x 27.9 x 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 22.231. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 22.231_side1_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Qur’anic Writing Board
Date
late 19th or early 20th century
Geography
Place made: Omdurman, Sudan
Medium
Wood, ink, string
Classification
Dimensions
31 7/8 x 11 x 1 in. (81 x 27.9 x 2.5 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund
Accession Number
22.231
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Do you know the translation to this?
The board features a passage from the Qur'an chapter 97, The label on this side says, “Instructional tablet for school", as you may have read on the label chapter 97 addresses the night of the first revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad. Muhammad's first revelation was the event in which Muhammad was visited by the archangel Gabriel who revealed to him a verse from the Quran.Chapter 97 of the Qur'an reads as follows (apologies for my incorrect formatting): " In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. We sent it down on the Night of Decree.But what will convey to you what the Night of Decree is? The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months.In it descend the angels and the Spirit, by the leave of their Lord, with every command. Peace it is; until the rise of dawn."
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