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THREE QUR'AN LEAVES IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON VELLUM, NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, 9TH-EARLY 10TH CENTURY; and one leaf in Maghribi script, Spain or North Africa, 12th-14th century
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 GBP
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Description
Text: folio A: Surat al-Baqarat (II), vv.160-163; Folio B: Surat al-Ma'idah (V), v.81 (end of Juz` 6); Folio C: Surat Tur (LII), vv.18-24
Folio A: six lines per page written in fine Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, letter-pointing of short brown ink dashes, vocalisation of coloured dots, illuminated device marking end of 160th verse containing the words 'mi'at was situwn' in gold Kufic within a floriated star, margins later ruled in gold.
18.1 by 29.1cm
Folio B: one page only (reverse blank due to end of Juz`), four lines of Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, vocalisation of coloured dots, text area bounded above and below with bands of stylised ropework, stylized palmette extending into margin.
15 by 21.6cm.
Folio C: 7 lines per page written in neat Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, vocalisation of coloured dots, verse divisions marked with small gold rosettes, illuminated roundel marking verse 20 in margin.
13.2 by 20.4cm.
And a vellum Qur'an leaf in Maghribi script.
Folio A: six lines per page written in fine Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, letter-pointing of short brown ink dashes, vocalisation of coloured dots, illuminated device marking end of 160th verse containing the words 'mi'at was situwn' in gold Kufic within a floriated star, margins later ruled in gold.
18.1 by 29.1cm
Folio B: one page only (reverse blank due to end of Juz`), four lines of Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, vocalisation of coloured dots, text area bounded above and below with bands of stylised ropework, stylized palmette extending into margin.
15 by 21.6cm.
Folio C: 7 lines per page written in neat Kufic script in dark brown ink on parchment, vocalisation of coloured dots, verse divisions marked with small gold rosettes, illuminated roundel marking verse 20 in margin.
13.2 by 20.4cm.
And a vellum Qur'an leaf in Maghribi script.
Catalogue Note
A Qur'an of very similar style to folio A is in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunis (Carthage, no.335. Examples related to Folio B are in the Musée du Bardo and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Tunis (Carthage, nos.332, 343). Folio C has a script that is conventionally Kufic, but has one instance of a letter-form that looks forward to the development of Eastern Kufic scripts in the Qur'anic context - the terminal min at the end of the final word on the recto has a tail that hangs vertically below the line, trailing of with a thin curve to the left. Letter-forms such as this are increasingly found on vellum Qur'ans as the 10th century progresses.