Skip to main content
Collections Menu
SAM'S collection
Image Not Available for Book cover
Book cover
Image Not Available for Book cover

Book cover

Date16th - 17th century
Label TextThe arts of the book are central in Persian art. Safavid workshops included not just master calligraphers and painters, but book binders as well. This book cover shows the same garden motif as do many carpets of the period. The Qur'an speaks of the righteous as "gardens with their Lord" (Surah III, verse XV). Whatever the contents of this book once were, the garden that extends across the cover is a diminutive earthly paradise.
Object number49.172
Published ReferencesRogers, Millard B. "Engagement Book: Iranian Art in the Seattle Art Museum," Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1972, fig. 54.
Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection
Dimensions11 1/8 x 6 3/4 x 3/16 in. (28.26 x 17.15 x 0.48 cm)
MediumLeather, gilding
Book Cover Exterior with Yusuf (Joseph) and His Brothers
Persian
18th century
Object number: 42.12.1
Book cover, gold pressed
Islamic
16th century
Object number: 38.26
Photo: Sarah Berman
Persian
early 16th century
Object number: 41.25
Photo: Paul Macapia
Persian
17th century
Object number: 33.1563
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
Persian
1625
Object number: 33.1564
Bahram Gur Punishing Azadeh
Persian
1341?
Object number: 52.41
Evangelistary Cover (Gospel Book)
Byzantine
6th-7th century
Object number: 65.134
First Page of a Book
Egyptian
late 15th century
Object number: 44.67
Book illustrating the Ramayana
Burmese
ca. 1850
Object number: 57.132