QUR'AN SECTION IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON VELLUM, NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, 9TH-19TH CENTURY

This elegant manuscript is in remarkably good condition with predominantly clean pages and strong ink, it has been finely prepared with the hair side of the vellum practically indistinguishable from the skin; a sure sign of quality craftsmanship and an eminent patron.

With its neat hand and seven lines of script the present example appears to be comparable to cat.45 in the Khalili Collection dated to the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth centuries. A comparison can also be drawn in the use of a gold kufic ha' as the fifth verse marker, and the marginal tenth verse marker. However, the execution of the present Qur'an fragment is lighter and more elegant, with a thinner line and superior mashq (Déroche 1992, p.98). These latter features appear to correspond to a somewhat damaged single Qur'an leaf, cat.45, also of Déroche's "Group D," that is dated to the end of the ninth century or beginning of the tenth (Déroche 1992, p.100-101). Whilst both leaves and their script types have been classified as "style D.va," category 47 exhibits the slender lines and gracefully extended medial letters found in the present fragment.