Işıklı Panel ve Kur’an Bölüm

This illuminated rectangular panel appears at the very beginning of a Qur'an executed in early Naskh script, dating from about the 11th–13th centuries. On the verso of the folio appears al-Fatihah (The opening), the first chapter of the Qur'an. Ornamental pages such as this one decorate the start or end of Qur'ans from the ninth century onward. Also called "carpet pages," they provide an ornamental and structural break in the manuscript. Rectangular panels filled with geometric motifs and provided with a finial or leaf-like medallion on the side trace their origins back to Roman tabulae ansatae (inscription panels), which were bound together by an ansa (handle). In this way, the pattern provides a visual reminiscence of plaques or folios, bound together into a whole or codex, evoking the concept of the Qur'an as written on tablets. It states (85:21–22): fi lawhin mahfuz (This is the Glorious Qur'an inscribed on a Preserved Tablet). This particular illuminated page includes a rectangular panel filled with four diamond-shaped polygons emanating from a central four-pointed star. In each diamond polygon appears a series of concentric circles outlined in light-brown ink. The central fou