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Lot Essay
The shift from kufic to 'round' scripts, though often imagined as a phenomenon which took place overnight thanks to the intervention of ibn al-Bawwab, was in reality a drawn-out process. It coincided with, and was partly driven by, wider political and social developments taking place across the Islamic world between the 11th and 13th centuries. The script used in this manuscript may be considered transitional in style. It displays some of the features of naskh, such as an overall looser approach in which letters lack the rigid conformity seen in kufic manuscripts. At the same time, the overall angularity of the script does have much in common with late manuscripts written in 'New Style' kufic, such as the evenly thick strokes used throughout and the occasional angularity of the script. A similar script can be seen in a manuscript in the Tokat Museum, Turkey, which has a colophon stating that it was written in the year 1190 AD.
Halfway through our manuscript is an illuminated double page. Similar illumination, though less rich, can be seen in the Tokat manuscript mentioned above. Another comparable manuscript was displayed in the exhibition Ink and Gold at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, 14 July-31 August 2006. As well as a comparable script to ours, the upper and lower panels were decorated with a band featuring the repeated word 'Allah' (Will Kwiatkowski and Marcus Fraser, Ink and Gold, Berlin, 2006, no.22, p.85). The same distinctive feature appears in the marginal medallions to the illumination in the middle of our manuscript.
A distinctive feature of this manuscript is how the scribe confidently combines different scripts throughout. As well as the angular naskh used in the body of the text, a looser style of naskh is used for interlinear translation, and the sura headings are in an unusual thuluth script in yellow or gold ink. Even more striking is the archaic kufic style flourishes which appear on occasion for phrases such as the bismallah. The inclusion of different scripts is something which Sheila Blair identifies as typical of manuscripts from this period. A similar kufic flourish begins the suras of a manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (CBL1438) which was copied by 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr ibn 'Abd al-Rahim, who identifies himself as al-katib al-maliki, the royal scribe, and zarin qalam, the golden pen (Sheila S Blair, Islamic Calligraphy, Edinburgh, 2006, fig.6.13, p.217). The combination of Arabic and Persian epithets gives testimony to the multilingual age of the Great Seljuks.
Halfway through our manuscript is an illuminated double page. Similar illumination, though less rich, can be seen in the Tokat manuscript mentioned above. Another comparable manuscript was displayed in the exhibition Ink and Gold at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, 14 July-31 August 2006. As well as a comparable script to ours, the upper and lower panels were decorated with a band featuring the repeated word 'Allah' (Will Kwiatkowski and Marcus Fraser, Ink and Gold, Berlin, 2006, no.22, p.85). The same distinctive feature appears in the marginal medallions to the illumination in the middle of our manuscript.
A distinctive feature of this manuscript is how the scribe confidently combines different scripts throughout. As well as the angular naskh used in the body of the text, a looser style of naskh is used for interlinear translation, and the sura headings are in an unusual thuluth script in yellow or gold ink. Even more striking is the archaic kufic style flourishes which appear on occasion for phrases such as the bismallah. The inclusion of different scripts is something which Sheila Blair identifies as typical of manuscripts from this period. A similar kufic flourish begins the suras of a manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (CBL1438) which was copied by 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr ibn 'Abd al-Rahim, who identifies himself as al-katib al-maliki, the royal scribe, and zarin qalam, the golden pen (Sheila S Blair, Islamic Calligraphy, Edinburgh, 2006, fig.6.13, p.217). The combination of Arabic and Persian epithets gives testimony to the multilingual age of the Great Seljuks.