An illuminated vellum Qur'an leaf in kufic, Near East, Iraq or Persia, 9th century

text: surat al-talaq (LXV), part of verse 1



Arabic manuscript on vellum, recto with a fine ornate frontispiece with a central rectangle filled with designs of interlacing circles enclosed in gold frames edged with rows of coloured dots, six squares filled with arabesques and geometric motifs in gold and some colour, illuminated palmette extending into outer margin, verso with 4 lines written in bold and stretched kufic script in brown ink, vowels indicated by red dots, sura heading and verse count written in kufic script in gold within a panel decorated with arabesques, border of overlapping gold lappets, illuminated palmette extending into outer margin

surface wear and associated flaking and minor losses, small tears to edges, loss of ink on text side, gold bright, decorative side in good condition, as viewed.
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This fine vellum Qur'an leaf originates from what is considered to be one of the highest quality illuminated Qur'ans written in Kufic script in the 9th/10th century.  Other leaves are in libraries, museums and private collections including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, the Pars Museum, Shiraz and the Iran-Bastan Museum, Tehran (4289).  For the latter, see A Selection of Koran Manuscripts in the Museum of the Islamic Period, Tehran, 1375/1955-56, London 1977, no.499 and Lings, The Qur'anic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, no.5.

Another leaf was exhibited in Ink and Gold - Islamic Calligraphy, Museum für Islamiche Kunst, Berlin (Fraser and Kwiatkowski 2006, no.8, p.40).

A further Folio with an identical illuminated frontispiece was sold in these rooms on 27th April 2005, lot 2.