Many medieval and Renaissance manuscripts have been disassembled over time, with pages going to collectors and institutions across the globe. At some point in the past, numerous leaves were removed from the Pink Qur’an, appearing on the international art market. Today, the bulk of the Pink Qur’an’s 2,200 pages are housed at the Ben Youssef Library in Marrakech. This project aims to account for its missing folios in order to understand what the complete volumes would have looked like and to gain insight into a variety of questions both about their original creation as well as tracking the individual leaves over time to determine whether there are any patterns related to their dispersal. View the current tracking document created by Alexander Brey here.

The project’s aim is to account for all missing folios in order to establish a baseline of information for future study of the Pink Qur’an. Some key questions that we hope to answer include:

• What was the original order of the folios?
• Was there a pattern to how folios were removed and sold?
• Precisely how many folios have been removed?
• How many of the removed folios are currently in museums or libraries?
• Which institutions own which folios?
• When did folios from different sections of the manuscript appear on the art market?
• Does the level of decoration on individual leaves correlate to their dispersal?

Getty’s Department of Manuscripts has been working with art historian and 2022–23 Getty Villa Scholar Alexander Brey, who has been researching Pink Qur’an folios that have appeared on the art market. Jointly, we are creating a spreadsheet of information to track these folios. Additional owners and institutions are invited to contribute missing information, with the goal of producing a complete directory of where each folio is housed and a digital representation of each leaf that has been removed. Getty is also working on technical analysis of its bifolium with the help of Museum conservators and GCI conservation scientists.