.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The script used for these folios is unusual, combining features of several of Déroche's 'families' of kufic letters. It broadly aligns with the 'D' family, with a curved jim, a broadly hooked alef, and a tail on final qaf descending immediately below the eye. However, in other regards the script is more akin to the 'C' group with its heavily-bracketed nun, two eyes in the ha', and a lam-alef ligature where the two ascenders run almost parallel. One folio in the group has a slight variant nun shape which is more clearly curved, corresponding with Déroche's group 'F', which this script also evokes with the elongated ta. Overall, this represents something of a transitional script which does not fit neatly into any one group, reminding us that Déroche's groups, while a helpful way of navigating the kufic corpus, remain a model imposed onto a pre-existing body of calligraphy, and not models which the calligraphers themselves were aware of, still less trying to emulate.
On some pages of this group, such as the page with the sura heading, there is evidence of lightly-drawn rules to assist the scribe. On that folio, they appear faintly drawn vertically to either side of the text panel, with another drawn horizontally along the bottom line, extending slightly to the left of the word sura. Light short lines also appear intermittently between words along the base line, such as between the daal and alef at the start of the second line of the same folio: these could also be remains of the rules, but also potentially small quantities of ink that have run into the depression left by erased rules. It is unusual to see evidence like this of how the page was constructed, as such markers were normally carefully erased, if used at all. However, this makes these folios a revealing piece of evidence for early Abbasid scribal practices.
A bifolio from this manuscript was sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 2, and is now in the Farjam Collection (Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Farjam Collection, volume I, London, 2024, no.10, p.54). A section of four consecutive folios also sold in these Rooms, 2 May 2019, lot 2, and a further 10 folios, 28 October 2020, lot 9.
On some pages of this group, such as the page with the sura heading, there is evidence of lightly-drawn rules to assist the scribe. On that folio, they appear faintly drawn vertically to either side of the text panel, with another drawn horizontally along the bottom line, extending slightly to the left of the word sura. Light short lines also appear intermittently between words along the base line, such as between the daal and alef at the start of the second line of the same folio: these could also be remains of the rules, but also potentially small quantities of ink that have run into the depression left by erased rules. It is unusual to see evidence like this of how the page was constructed, as such markers were normally carefully erased, if used at all. However, this makes these folios a revealing piece of evidence for early Abbasid scribal practices.
A bifolio from this manuscript was sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 2, and is now in the Farjam Collection (Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Farjam Collection, volume I, London, 2024, no.10, p.54). A section of four consecutive folios also sold in these Rooms, 2 May 2019, lot 2, and a further 10 folios, 28 October 2020, lot 9.