Arts of the Islamic World and India, including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World and India, including Fine Rugs and Carpets
An illuminated Qur'an leaf in Kufic script on vellum, North Africa or Near East, 9th-10th century AD
Auction Closed
April 26, 01:36 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
text: surah al-baqarah (II), end of v.160 to end of v.163
Arabic manuscript on vellum, 6 lines to the page written in Kufic in dark brown ink, diacritics in red, verses separated by gold rosettes, end of v.160 marked by an illuminated floriated star containing 'mi'at wa sittun' in gold Kufic, text within later gold and black rules
18.1 by 29cm.
The elegant script of this manuscript relates to Déroche’s D.I group, displaying a spacious and controlled hand. The scribe has made generous use of horizontal extension (mashq) where words such as al-tawwab are extended to almost two thirds of the line. Other folios from this manuscript are in the Khalili collection (inv.no.KFQ67, Déroche 1992, no.20). The Khalili page is decorated with a gold flower in the lower margin, probably added in the Ottoman empire. This illumination, like the rules added to the present folio, indicate that it formed part of an album or was used as a levha (Déroche 1992, no.20). Further leaves have sold in these rooms, 29 April 1998, lot 5 and 15 October 2003, lot 2, along with a group of ten leaves sold at Christie's, London, 7 October 2008, lot 2. A leaf from the same manuscript is in the Detroit Institute of Arts (inv.no.1984.44.A).