A monumental Qur'an leaf in Kufic script, Near East or North Africa, circa 850-950 AD

Only a handful of manuscripts have survived that parallel the monumental size of this leaf. These include the so-called ‘Tashkent’ Qur’an (55 by 70cm, see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc.no.2004.87), the Sana’a Qur’an (51 by 47cm) and a manuscript measuring 42.5 by 58.5cm. from which a leaf was recently sold in these rooms, 26 October 2022, lot 10.

The script itself is close to Déroche’s D.I and D.Va groups (Déroche 1992, pp.45-47). It is relatively tightly packed together, with little use of mashq (horizontal extension). The scribe does, however, incorporate an occasional, subtle, graphic flourish to the script by twisting the nib of the pen on certain horizontal terminals producing a fine tail, along with barely perceptible tails to the mim terminals, variations of which occur in Déroche’s ‘C’ classifications (Déroche 1992, pp.34-37).

Throughout the text, the path of the pen can be easily traced by the light and shade caused by the pooling of the ink. As Quaritch notes, this would indicate that the manuscript was copied by a confident scribe with a sure knowledge of the script he was using and the text he was copying (Quaritch 1995, p.101).

It is likely that the calligrapher originally created the pages with no illumination giving focus solely to the text. The restrained style would suggest that it was intended as a functional, probably institutional, copy, perhaps for a mosque or madrasa (Fraser & Kwiatowski 2006, pp.34-37, no.6). The later annotations in red on other folios of the group would support this theory. They are added in a relatively untidy hand indicating that they were not added by a trained calligrapher, rather by someone who was an expert in Qur’an recitation to aid reading or teaching (Quaritch 1995, p.101).

An unusual feature of this leaf is the change of format between the recto and verso. The verso displays only ten lines of text situated within wide, plain margins – a impactful deviation that emphasises the impressive scale of the leaf. The text of the verso comprises vv.98 to 105 of surah al-Kahf and it is likely that the following folio would contain the final five verses, similarly formatted, to mark the end of the chapter.

The leaf published by Quaritch shows that this format wasn’t used throughout the manuscript to mark the end of chapters. That leaf covers the end of surah XVII, surah al-'Isra, and the beginning of surah XVIII, surah al-Kahf. There, the scribe indicates the break in chapters by leaving part of line nine and the whole of line ten blank (Quaritch 1995, p.101). The pronounced change in format at the end of the chapter on this leaf might suggest that the scribe wanted to covey a particular importance to the closing verses of this chapter.

Further folios from this manuscript were exhibited in the exhibition Ink and Gold, Museum für Islamiche Kunst, Berlin, 2006 (see Fraser & Kwiatkowski 2006, pp.34-37) and others were sold in these rooms 6 April 2011, lot 166; 1 April 2009, lot 3; 8 October 2008, lot 7; 9 April 2008; lot 14, and 24 October 2007, lot 3.