Eight leaves from a Kufic Qur'an on vellum, North Africa or Near East, late 9th century AD

text: surah al-anbiya (XXI) part of verse 109 to verse 111, and surah al-hajj (XXII) part of verse 14 to verse 30
Arabic manuscript on vellum, comprising 3 bifolia and 2 loose leaves, 5 lines to the page, written in bold elongated Kufic script in brown ink, verses separated by gold florets, vocalisation represented by red dots, one leaf with a large gold floral roundel with the word 'ashr' marking the tenth verse 

Acquired in London in 1970s

In reasonably good overall condition, one side of each leaf more faded than the other, losses to leaf edges, some stains, as viewed.
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These eight leaves provide a fine example of 'Abbasid Qur'an production at its most stylised point in the late-ninth century. It is perhaps possible to define this style (equating to Déroche's group 'D' styles) as the mature 'Abbasid Kufic', with the script displaying the 'sober beauty' that Déroche mentions in the catalogue of the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (Déroche 1992, no.21). Manuscripts with this kind of austere beauty seem to emphasise the power and significance of the text through the execution of a confident hand; the use of horizontal stretching (mashq) abstracts some of the letters which underlines the centrality and iconic status of the word of the Qur'an. The vertical letter-forms provide a visual balance to the horizontal elongation but for the time being they are not the focus. Other features of the script which characterise the style include a relatively wide and even spacing of the letters along the lines and of the lines on the page; a typical horizontal format for the text area and page, few or no original letter-points, and a regular visual rhythm.

These eight leaves originate from the same manuscript as another leaf in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (KFQ64, published in Déroche 1992, p.70, no.22). Another fragment is in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, published in F. Karatay, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi Kütüphanesi. Arapça yazmalar katalogu, I, Istanbul, 1962, no.53.