A Qur'an Leaf in Kufic Script on Vellum, North Africa or Middle East, circa 9th century AD

text: surah yusuf (XII), part of verse 44 to part of verse 54
Arabic manuscript on vellum, 14 lines to the page written in elongated kufic script in black ink, vocalisation in the form of red dots, verses marked by triangular clusters made up of 3 gold dots, verso with a marginal illumination comprising two short lines of text in gold surrounded by a ropework and floral border

This is an usual Qur'an folio that accords to Déroche's 'group F' in his categorisation of early Arabic scripts used for copying the Qur'an (see F. Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London, 1992, p.42). The characteristics of this style are a consistent mashq, or 'stretching' of the letter forms, which Déroche notes is a feature typical of leaves from Damascus. Other characteristics of the individual letters are a relatively extenuated alif, a predominently circular mim, and the almost symmetrical shape of the lam-alif form.