NORTH AFRICA OR NEAR EAST, 10TH CENTURY

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QUR'AN BIFOLIUM
North Africa or Near East, 10th century
sura al-mujadila LVIII, v.19-sura al-hashr LIX, v.1-8 and sura al-mumtahana LX, v.8-sura al-saff LXI, v.1-5, manuscript on parchment, each folio with 20ll. of small neat black kufic, vocalisation of red dots, small gold rosettes between verses, the fifth verse marked with a gold half-palmette, the tenth verse marked with a larger gold medallion in the margin with the verse count in gold kufic, two sura headings with the title in reserve against a red and gold illuminated panel issuing a palmette into the margin, light staining
Folio 5¾ x 4 3/8in. (14.4 x 11cm.)

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Lot Essay

These folios come from a very fine small Qur'an of a rare type. It bridges the gap between the earlier type of kufic Qur'ans copied on parchment of horizontal format, and the new type of Qur'an which appeared in the early 11th century which is copied on paper and is vertical. The illumination is superb and is comparable to another small Qur'an in the collection of Nasser D. Khalili (Déroche, F.: The Abbasid Tradition, London, 1992, no.78, pp.142-3).
Another bifolium from the same Qur'an was sold at Sotheby's 16 October 2002, lot 4.

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