Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 542 : Excerpts from the Koran and from a prayer

The roll mounted on thin green tissue (silk?) is composed of 19 paper strips glued together. It comes from the second half of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century and was produced in an Iranian area (Timurids, Turkmen), as suggested by the floral tendril pattern on the background of 29 rectangles. The text copied on the roll consists of passages from the Koran (incomplete) and from a prayer. The text was copied in different colors (Red, Blue, Gold, Green, among others) in rectangles, squares and ribbons (Script: Nasḫ). The passages in large characters (ca. 4 cm high) in the rectangles are in turn composed of Koran passages in microscopic script (ġubār) (f. 5). This is characteristic of pieces from Iran from the sixteenth century onwards. In the first rectangle there are successive entries on a change of ownership in the year 957/1550. It is likely that the here-mentioned Sulṭān Sulaymān is Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–66), but it cannot be proven (f. 2). Martin Bodmer acquired the roll in 1961 from the estate of the famous antiquarian Martin Breslauer (1871-1940).