The Blue Quran
Gold on indigo parchment.
Unknown artistUnknown artist — Public domain · Sami Mlouhi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · مهدي الجويني — CC BY-SA 2.0 · مهدي الجويني from Tunis, Tunisia — CC BY-SA 2.0
A museum devoted to Islamic civilisation and art in Kairouan, set at Raqqada, the princely city the Aghlabids built as their capital south of Kairouan in the late ninth century. Since 1986 it has filled a modern palace building among wide gardens. Its treasure is a set of leaves from the Blue Quran, one of the most famous manuscripts in Islamic art, written in gold Kufic script on parchment dyed indigo blue. The museum holds dozens of its folios, alongside other Qurans and manuscripts from the old library of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Other rooms show finds from Kairouan, Raqqada and Sabra al-Mansuriya: lustreware, glass, gold and silver coins of the Aghlabid, Fatimid and Zirid periods and Kufic gravestones. The museum is outside town, so go by taxi or on a tour, and remember it is closed on Mondays, with hours that change between winter and summer.
Gold on indigo parchment.
From Kairouan and Sabra.
Aghlabid and Fatimid.
Raqqada, about 10 km south of Kairouan
Leaves of it are shown at the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art, about 10 km south of Kairouan.