A large illuminated volume from a six-volume Qur'an in Maghribi script, North Africa, early 19th century

Developments in Qur’an production in North Africa were relatively conservative and many of the manuscripts of the later period show clear affinity with their thirteenth/fourteenth century forebears. The prevailing style is shown through the continuation of the bold Maghribi script which contrasts with Kufic surah headings flanked by marginal medallions, and the drop-shaped verse markers. The above all feature on a fourteenth/fifteenth century Qur’an published in Sam Fogg, Islamic Calligraphy, 2005, pp.72-73; a sixteenth/seventeenth century juz’ sold in these rooms, 25 April 2012, lot 411, and the present manuscript. The large size of the leaves also relates to the earlier tradition, see for example, a Qur’an leaf from a well-known Qur’an in Maghribi script on pink paper in the present sale (lot 18).

Qur’ans produced in North Africa are most frequently ascribed to Morocco, with a handful attributed to other centres largely on the basis of endowment inscriptions, see, for example, an Algerian Qur’an sold in these rooms, 25 October 2023, lot 1. A fifteenth/sixteenth century example attributed to Libya, displaying a comparably dark purplish-red pigment in the colouration of the illumination is in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Given the similarities in the colouration of the two manuscripts, it is possible that this Qur’an section was also produced in one of the lesser studied centres of North African manuscript production.