A QUR'AN LEAF IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON PARCHMENT, NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA, 8TH-9TH CENTURY

Text: Surat Al-Anbiya (xxi), vv.64-80



Arabic manuscript folio, ink, colours and gold on parchement, 15 lines per page written in small, neat Kufic script, letter-pointing (i'jam) applied in black, vocalization of red dots, fifth verse divisions marked with a small Kufic letter 'ha' in gold, tenth verse marked with a small illuminated floret within the text area, stylized winged palmette in margin in colours and gold

Adrienne Minassian, New York, 1955

The letter-pointing (i'jam) has been applied in a different ink from the main text – a slightly darker, almost black ink – which tends to indicate that it has been applied after completing the main text rather than simultaneously. Close inspection shows that on occasions the ink of the letter-points overlaps the red dots of the vocalization, confirming this sequence. The script used here is close to Déroche's category D.IV, which he assigns to the first half of the ninth century. However, occasional letter-forms appear slightly archaic– the dal at the beginning of the penultimate line of the verso, for instance, has an almost Hijazi form. These palaeographic aspects might indicate either an earlier date for the production of this Qur'an, at a time when aspects of Hijazi and early Kufic scripts were still present, or a provincial production where archaic letter-forms were still in use.

The illuminated device in the margin of the verso is interesting for its stylized "winged palmette" form, which resembles certain motifs on Abbasid lustre pottery, particularly several of the well-known tiles that decorate the mihrab of the Great Mosque of Qayrawan, which are datable to 863 (see Ettinghausen, Grabar and Jenkins-Madina 2001, fig.104, p.68,) and a bowl in the Keir Collection, Ham (Grube 1976, no.15, col.pl.p.56).