Ephemerality > Bee & Moth Qur'an
One of the most outstanding bindings in Columbia’s collection is also one of the latest. It adorns MS Or. 163, a slim Qur’an produced in 1296 AH/1879 CE. Copied in 48 lines per page using the diminutive ghubar script, the holy book’s 6,236 verses occupy only 33 folios (a number, perhaps, of mystical significance). Although even smaller calligraphy exists, the present volume manages to occupy a still-legible scale.
Almost hiding amidst the dense, all-over garden motif on the exterior boards are two insects: a bee on the front cover (depicted below) and a moth on the back. Although it might seem unusual to have figural representations on the cover of a Qur’an, both creatures can be taken as referring to specific verses from the book. The bee recalls one as follows:
Qur'an
Text: Iran, 1296 AH/1879 CE; Binding contemporaneous
Paint, gold, and varnish on papier-mâché boards
MS Or. 163
And your Lord inspired the bee, saying, ‘Build yourselves houses in the mountains and trees and what people construct. Then feed on all kinds of fruit and follow the ways made easy for you by your Lord.’ From their bellies comes a drink of different colors in which there is healing for people. There truly is a sign in this for those who think. (Q.16:68-69)
The painting is a reminder of the verse which is an injunction to meditate upon the image—originally proverbial, here literal—of the bee. This is surrounded by a band of text to which it might be only loosely related:
God: there is no god but Him, the Ever Living, the Ever Watchful. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. All that is in the heavens and in the earth belongs to Him. Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His leave? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they do not comprehend any of His knowledge except what He wills. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth; it does not weary Him to preserve them both. He is the Most High, the Tremendous. There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error, so whoever rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped the firmest hand-hold, one that will never break. God is all hearing and all knowing. God is the ally of those who believe: He brings them out of the depths of darkness and into the light. As for the disbelievers, their allies are false gods who take them from the light into the depths of darkness, they are the inhabitants of the Fire, and there they will remain. (Q.2:255-257)
Meanwhile, the rear board is a mirror image, possibly produced through a pounce or stencil, save for the substitution of one flying creature for another. The moth's cameo in the Qur'an is less meditative:
The Crashing Blow! What is the Crashing Blow? What will explain to you what the Crashing Blow is? On a Day when people will be like scattered moths and the mountains like tufts of wool, the one whose good deeds are heavy on the scales will have a pleasant life, but the one whose good deeds are light will have the Bottomless Pit for his home—what will explain to you what that is?—a blazing fire. (Q.101:1-11)
This startlng image is partially tempered by the outer band of calligraphy; this features the famous “Light Verse,” often quoted by mystics:
God is the Light of the heavens and earth. His Light is like this: there is a niche, and in it a lamp, the lamp inside a glass, a glass like a glittering star, fueled from a blessed olive tree from neither east nor west, whose oil almost gives light even when no fire touches it—light upon light—God guides whoever He will to his Light; God draws such comparisons for people; God has full knowledge of everything. (Q.24:35)
Juxtaposed with the moth, one calls to mind that creature's fatal attraction to flame—yet another mystical conceit, often used in early modern poetry. Taking the front and back boards together, one notes that the bees gather and the moths disperse; one picks up the book, reads it, and puts it back down.
Gold-on-black lacquer, used here, may have been the earliest color scheme utilized for bookbinder's lacquer, back in the 15th century. It subsequently went in and out of fashion multiple times, the last being a distinct phase between ca. 1878–92. Another example of this style in the collection (MS Or. 214) is a diminutive volume preserving the even smaller folios of an antique, possibly Timurid copy of the Qur'an.