An illuminated Qur'an section in Maghribi script, North Africa or Spain, 12th century

Auction Closed

October 26, 12:30 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

text: surah al-ma’idah (V), middle of verse 19 to middle of verse 35; surah al-an’am (VI), middle of verse 33 to end of verse 35; surah al-ma’idah (V), middle of verse 111 to surah al-an’am (VI) middle of verse 2; verse 36 to middle of verse 39

Arabic manuscript on vellum, 12 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, 7 lines to the page, written in fine Maghribi script in brown ink, diacritics in blue and yellow, verses separated by gold and polychrome florets, 1 surah heading written in gold Kufic with an interlacing scroll medallion in the margin, misbound, in cream gold-stamped binding

leaf: 17 by 16cm.

Ex-collection Oliver Henry Perkins des Moines, Iowa (d.1912).
Anderson Galleries, New York, 23 March 1926, lot 521.

Oliver Henry Perkins was a well-known traveller of the nineteenth century, circumnavigating the globe and travelling extensively in the Middle East and Asia. He was both a writer and a book collector, assembling an extensive library which was sold after his death in New York in 1926.