A LARGE QUR'AN LEAF IN GOLD KUFIC SCRIPT ON BLUE VELLUM, NEAR EAST, NORTH AFRICA OR SOUTHERN SPAIN, 9TH-10TH CENTURY AD

This leaf is from an extraordinary manuscript commonly referred to as the 'Blue Qur’an'. When complete it must have been one of the most luxurious manuscripts ever produced in the early medieval period in the Islamic world.

Emily Neumeier speculates that there were approximately 650 folios before the Qur’an was disbound and scattered with just over a hundred leaves known and dispersed. Other examples of dyed vellum are known, but rare, and yellow was the most common colour choice. The manuscript was probably symbolic as well as materially opulent and visually striking, delivering a bold socio-political message to neighbouring empires, by way of its combination of blue vellum and gold script which could rival the most luxurious manuscripts of the Byzantine empire, which were dyed blue or purple (see M. Fraser, and W. Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold. Islamic Calligraphy, London-Berlin, 2006, no.46). The angular gold Kufic script was executed using the technique of chrysography, in which ground gold, suspended in solution, is carefully applied.

The exact origins of the Blue Qur'an are unknown, but scholars have pursued multiple intriguing and compelling theories over the last century. F.R. Martin, who acquired a group of leaves in Istanbul in 1912, suggested that the manuscript was commissioned by the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun for the tomb of his father Harun al-Rashid, and that the dark blue colour of the vellum was a symbol of mourning. However, based on an inventory of the Great Mosque at Qairawan in 1294 AD, (published in 1956 by Chabbouh), which mentions a Qur'an written in gold on blue parchment, J.M. Bloom has argued that a North African provenance is the most likely (J.M. Bloom, 'Al-Ma'mun's Blue Koran?', Revue des études islamiques, LIV, 1986, pp.59-65; and 'The Blue Koran. An Early Fatimid Kufic manuscript from the Maghrib', Les manuscrits du Moyen-Orient, Varia Turcica, VIII, Istanbul and Paris, 1989, pp.95-99).

Research by T. Stanley (Quaritch 1999, pp.7-15) points to an Andalusian patron, and M. Fraser suggests a Cordoban origin for the Blue Qur’an in Manuscripts in the Making: Art & Science I ed. Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi (2017, pp.198-213) Alain George’s recent detailed and methodical study of extant Blue Qur’an folios from all over the world attributes the manuscript to the early Abbasid period in the late eight or early ninth century (A. George, 'Calligraphy, Colour and Light in the Blue Qur'an', in Journal of Qur'anic Studies, Volume XI, Issue 1, 2009, pp.75-125).

Whilst the exact geographical origins and story of the patronal commission behind the manuscript remain elusive, it is universally agreed that it is a startlingly luxurious example of early Islamic manuscript production. The now enigmatic patron must have been a ruler of enormous wealth and ambition, and it was one of the most important and lavish manuscripts of the Qur'an produced in the medieval Arab world.

A section of the manuscript is in the National Institute of Art and Archaeology in Tunis, while detached leaves or fragments are in the National Library, Tunis, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge Massachusetts, Metropolitan Museum, Chester Beatty (CBL Is 1405A, folio 1a) and various private collections including the Aga Khan Museum Collection, Toronto, Sarikhani Collection and the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London. Several leaves have been sold in these rooms, most recently, 22 April 2015, lot 62; 4 October 2011, lot 2; 5 October 2010, lot 7; 11 October 2006, lot 3, and in the sale of the Collection of the Berkeley Trust, 12 October 2004, lot 1.