No suitable subject-specific photograph has been screened for this term. The comparison table below provides a visual reading aid without substituting unrelated imagery.
Spelling and pronunciation
- Persian: مرقع
- Transliteration: moraqqaʿ
- English usage: Album (muraqqa)
Spellings vary between dealers, museums and regions. Usage notes are under review.
How the term is used
Means an album of calligraphy and paintings mounted on decorated pages.
Common confusions
Sometimes spelled muraqqa'. It is not a single manuscript text.
An album contains several histories
An album can gather different artists, dates and original contexts into a mounted whole. Borders, supports and binding give it a new assembly history. Album date does not automatically date every sheet.
Keep the entire leaf, including reverse, in the record. Captions, collector marks and seams may survive where a cropped central image omits evidence. Detachment can leave gaps that decorative similarity cannot reconstruct.
Compare the evidence
| Object or term | What to examine | Limit of the evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Central sheet | Painting or writing | Not the album's complete authorship. |
| Mount | Seams and borders | May be a later assembly. |
| Binding | Album construction | Date can differ from sheets. |
Practical questions
- Does one signature name the whole album's maker?
- No. It may name a contributor to one panel or a later addition.
Sources and further reading
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art · The arts of the book in the Islamic world
Collaborative manuscript production and page arts; not authentication of a particular sheet.
Editorial draft awaiting specialist review. References provide context, not verification of every statement, object attribution or current workshop access.
Used in these crafts
The Iranian tradition of small-scale painting made for manuscripts and albums, built from fine line, flat luminous colour and layered spatial convention rather than single-point perspective.
A hanging cursive script developed in Iran for Persian poetry, distinguished by its sloping baseline, sharply contrasted thick and thin strokes, and sweeping final letters.