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Lot Essay
The English inscription on the opening fly-leaf reads 'I have found This book in a place Called Tazurut in Africa [...] the 13th of June 1927'. The habs (waqf) inscription in Arabic above the English note confirms that this Qur'an section was originally endowed to the Tazarut mosque. The city of Tazarut is in northern Morocco.
By the 11th century, the scribes of the Maghrib had long divorced themselves from the Eastern developments of Arabic script. A trend began in the 12th century for Qur'ans to be produced either in a style that was remarkably small in scale or remarkably large (Bernard Quaritch, 'The Maghribi School. From Cordoba to Bornu', The Qur'an and Calligraphy, Catalogue 1213, p.21). The present Qur'an would appear to be an early example of the latter. Text could thus be arranged with as few as five or six lines to the page. This larger script has become known as maghribi as opposed to the smaller andalusi. Although eleven Qur’ans written in smaller script have survived with their colophon, often giving the place of copy, none that have survived in a large-format script have a colophon. Some have been tentatively attributed to Nasrid Granada but this provenance is uncertain (Heather Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, The Art and Influence of Islamic Spain, exhibition catalogue, Washington, 2004, cat.57, p.48). A Qur’an section that displays a similar page layout was sold at Christie’s, 8 April 2008, lot 38.
The lavish illumination of this hizb, with two double ‘carpet’ pages is particularly well preserved. It shows an extensive use of gold as well as intricate geometric compositions, exemplifying the art of Qur’anic illumination in the western Islamic world at its best. It is very similar to the illumination on the Andalusian Qur'an copied by Husayn Ibn Ishaq in Cordoba in April 1078 AD which sold at Christie’s, 7 October 2008, lot 97. It is also particularly close to the illumination on a Qur’an section in the Freer Gallery of Art, attributed to Spain or North Africa and dated to the 13th century (Ecker, op.cit., cat.57, pp. 66-69). That Qur’an and the present copy are written in the larger maghribi script. As Ecker notes, the question of the Spanish attribution versus a north African one is further compounded by the fact that many scribes and scholar in the second half of the 13th century in the Maghrib were émigrés from al-Andalus (op.cit., p.148).
Another Qur’an with similar double 'carpet' page illumination is in the Istanbul University Library and attributed to Valencia (A 6754, Marianne Barrucand, Arte Islamic en Granada, exhibition catalogue, Granada, 2003, Lam.3, p.168). More generally both Heather Ecker and Marianne Barrucand point to the conservatism of the style of illumination of these square Qur’ans throughout the 12th and 13th century, and to the inherent difficulty of dating them with precision. The style continues until the end of the Merinid and Nasrid dynasties (Barrucand, op.cit., ‘Observaciones sobre las iluminaciones de Coranes hispano-magrebies’, pp.165-171). In Spain, this tradition had a strong influence on the Christian and Jewish manuscript production of the period.
As the present manuscript was found in Tazarut, Morocco at the beginning of the 20th century this could well support a Moroccan attribution - unless it was brought to Africa by Andalusian émigrés ahead of the Christian Reconquista.
By the 11th century, the scribes of the Maghrib had long divorced themselves from the Eastern developments of Arabic script. A trend began in the 12th century for Qur'ans to be produced either in a style that was remarkably small in scale or remarkably large (Bernard Quaritch, 'The Maghribi School. From Cordoba to Bornu', The Qur'an and Calligraphy, Catalogue 1213, p.21). The present Qur'an would appear to be an early example of the latter. Text could thus be arranged with as few as five or six lines to the page. This larger script has become known as maghribi as opposed to the smaller andalusi. Although eleven Qur’ans written in smaller script have survived with their colophon, often giving the place of copy, none that have survived in a large-format script have a colophon. Some have been tentatively attributed to Nasrid Granada but this provenance is uncertain (Heather Ecker, Caliphs and Kings, The Art and Influence of Islamic Spain, exhibition catalogue, Washington, 2004, cat.57, p.48). A Qur’an section that displays a similar page layout was sold at Christie’s, 8 April 2008, lot 38.
The lavish illumination of this hizb, with two double ‘carpet’ pages is particularly well preserved. It shows an extensive use of gold as well as intricate geometric compositions, exemplifying the art of Qur’anic illumination in the western Islamic world at its best. It is very similar to the illumination on the Andalusian Qur'an copied by Husayn Ibn Ishaq in Cordoba in April 1078 AD which sold at Christie’s, 7 October 2008, lot 97. It is also particularly close to the illumination on a Qur’an section in the Freer Gallery of Art, attributed to Spain or North Africa and dated to the 13th century (Ecker, op.cit., cat.57, pp. 66-69). That Qur’an and the present copy are written in the larger maghribi script. As Ecker notes, the question of the Spanish attribution versus a north African one is further compounded by the fact that many scribes and scholar in the second half of the 13th century in the Maghrib were émigrés from al-Andalus (op.cit., p.148).
Another Qur’an with similar double 'carpet' page illumination is in the Istanbul University Library and attributed to Valencia (A 6754, Marianne Barrucand, Arte Islamic en Granada, exhibition catalogue, Granada, 2003, Lam.3, p.168). More generally both Heather Ecker and Marianne Barrucand point to the conservatism of the style of illumination of these square Qur’ans throughout the 12th and 13th century, and to the inherent difficulty of dating them with precision. The style continues until the end of the Merinid and Nasrid dynasties (Barrucand, op.cit., ‘Observaciones sobre las iluminaciones de Coranes hispano-magrebies’, pp.165-171). In Spain, this tradition had a strong influence on the Christian and Jewish manuscript production of the period.
As the present manuscript was found in Tazarut, Morocco at the beginning of the 20th century this could well support a Moroccan attribution - unless it was brought to Africa by Andalusian émigrés ahead of the Christian Reconquista.