Details
TWO PINK QUR'AN FOLIOS
SPAIN, 13TH CENTURY
Qur'an XL, sura ghafir, middle of v.34 to v.35 and Qur'an XLIV, sura al-dukhan, middle of v.30 to v.35, Arabic manuscript on pink paper, with 5ll. of bold black maghribi, gold diacritics outlined in black, shadda and sukun marked in blue and yellow, five large gold and polychrome illuminated roundel verse markers, a large illuminated teardrop marginal device marking half hizb and a square marker at al-'ashar al-tasi', upper borders with punched inventory inscription
12 x 9 3/8in. (30.5 x 23.8cm.)

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Sara Plumbly
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Lot Essay

The attribution of these striking pink folios to Spain is based primarily on the use of paper. In North Africa, parchment remained the preferred material for the writing of Qur’ans into the 19th century. Spain, however, had been manufacturing and using high quality paper for manuscripts of all kinds for some time. Manuscripts like this one, on pink dyed paper are believed to have been produced in Jativa, near Valencia, the site of the earliest documented paper mill in Spain (Marcus Fraser and Will Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Masterpieces of Islamic Calligraphy, London, 2006, p.64).
A number of folios from this manuscript are in public collections, while others have appeared at auction. 215 folios, formerly in the collection of Maréchal Lyautey were sold at the Hotel Georges V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488, and quickly appeared at Sotheby’s, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Other leaves from this manuscript have since sold at Christie’s London, including a single folio and a bifolio, 26 April 2012, lots 135 and 136, and a folio on 10 October 2013, lot 70. More recently a single folio sold at Christie’s London, 26 October 2017, lot 66.

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