Usually, an illuminated heading marks the beginning of each of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an. This one marks the start of chapter 32, which bears the title al-Sajda (The Prostration) and which deals with the mysteries of Creation, Time and the Final End.
A Sense of Identity | Qur'an | Creation (Islam)
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Badi al-Zaman Al-Jazari wrote his Book of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206 in response to a request from his patron, a minor king in Diyarbekir (in what is now south-east Turkey). The text includes diagrams and instructions for the construction of fifty mechanical dev
A Sense of Freedom | Technology | Mechanical devices
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The historiated initial ‘I’ marks the beginning of the Book of Genesis: In Principio creavit Deus caelum et terram, or ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. Each line of text is written in decreasing size, a decorative technique known as diminuendo. The
A Sense of Place | Creation | Biblical cosmology
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This folio from a vellum codex contains the Coptic version in the Sahidic dialect of a collection of rules relating to church discipline ascribed to St Basil. Basil the Great (born c.300), bishop of Caesarea, was an important early theologian as well as one of the fathers of comm
A Sense of Identity | Basil, Saint, Bishop of Caesarea, approximately 329-379 | Religion
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