Our knowledge of book-bindings in the early centuries of Islam has been greatly advanced by the discovery of a large number of dismembered Qur'an bindings of the ninth to thirteenth centuries in the Great Mosque of Qairawan which are now preserved in the Museum of Bardo, Tunis. The have been described and analysed by G. Marçais and L. Poinssot. Characteristics of the Qur'an bindings of the ninth to eleventh centuries are the so-called format à l'italienne in which the width is always greater than the height, the boards are of leather mounted on wood, and the book is provided with a metal boss on the forward edge of the upper board which receives a leather or silk loop attached to the middle of the outer edge of the lower board. The stamped decoratioon of both boards consists of a border of cable design framing a guilloche design. The bands comprising these designs consist almost invariably of raised hatchings.

The binding of our Qur'an has all these characteristics with the exception that the loop in the lower board is replaced by leather ties. Its decorative composition can be compared closely to that illustrated in Marçais and Poinssot, no.19, p.87, pl.III, which can be dated to the ninth century. Unlike the dismembered Qairawan bindings, ours still retains almost all of the parchment folios, complete with their original cotton sewings.

Marçais, G. and Poinssot, L.: Objets Kairouannais IX au XIII siècle; reliures, etc, Tunis, 1948