A LARGE QURAN FOLIO IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON PAPER, NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, LATE 9TH-EARLY 10TH CENTURY A LARGE QURAN FOLIO IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON PAPER, NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, LATE 9TH-EARLY 10TH CENTURY

A LARGE QURAN FOLIO IN KUFIC SCRIPT ON PAPER, NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, LATE 9TH-EARLY 10TH CENTURY

Reference: ART3003118

This folio from a Quran Manuscript, like many early Quran folios, is written on paper in black ink with a broad-nibbed reed pen, with 6 lines. The horizontally elongated letters seen here are characteristic of early Kufic Qurans on paper and are thought to be a response to the rectangular page format. The angular script is moderated by the roundness of several letters that look like large black dots. Vocalization in red and some in green dots, gold verses between surahs. surah Aal-i-Imraan (Family of Imraan), verses from 124 - 126. One side fainter than the other with some loses edges. 41.5 by 30 cm

CATALOGUE NOTE Folios from this dispersed Quran manuscript are notable for their strong and disciplined hand, as well as the strong, exaggerated mashq present here, indicative of 'perfect mastery of the pen' (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992, p. 69). Similar folios from similar Quran are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, The Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran (Ms. 4289: see M. Lings, The Qur'anic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, Westerham 1976, no. 5), and the Pars Museum, Shiraz. Various other folios from similar Quran found displaying the same features have appeared at auction houses in the past.