A TIMURID QURAN LEAF, PERSIA OR MESOPOTAMIA, CIRCA 1350

Arabic manuscript on paper. A single double leaf with 5 lines to each side, written in large elegant black thuluth muhaqqaq script outlined in gold. Gold and blue verse markers outlined in red, with diacritics and vowel points in black, all ruled in red and purple borders. Quran 4 surah An-Nisa’ v.26-v.29 Text panel: 19 by 27 cm. Folio: 29 by 40 cm.

At an early date, there were a great many more rounded cursive scripts that were used for secular purposes, in contrast to the Kufi script used for the Quran. At the beginning of the 10th century, the vizier and calligrapher Muhammad ibn Muqla devised rules for how six of these scripts were to be written. This imbued the cursive scripts with such prestige that they were used for the Quran from the beginning of the 11th century.