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Lot Essay
The colophon of this Qur'an states that it was copied by Husayn ibn Ishaq for the private library of the Vizir 'Abd al-Malik ibn Siraj at Cordoba.
By the 11th century, the scribes of the Maghrib had long divorced themselves from the Eastern development of Arabic script. A trend began in the 12th century for Qur'ans to be produced either in a style that was remarkably small in scale or remarkably large (Bernard Quaritch, 'The Maghribi School. From Cordoba to Bornu', The Qur'an and Calligraphy, Catalogue 1213, p.21). The present Qur'an would appear to be an early example of the former. They were generally written with a fine nib and strong horizontal emphasis, with many letters extended horizontally and with relatively short vertical elements. Text could thus be arranged with as many as twenty-nine lines to the page. This smaller script has become known as andalusi as opposed to the larger maghribi. A number of these manuscripts in the smaller hand have colophons often giving the place of production. At least five of these manuscripts are from Valencia, but others were copied in Cordoba, as the present example, Ceuta, Marrakesh and Seville. It is presumed that the script continued to be employed for copying the Qur'an in Nasrid Granada, as well as in Morocco (Quaritch, op. cit., p. 22).
By the 11th century, the scribes of the Maghrib had long divorced themselves from the Eastern development of Arabic script. A trend began in the 12th century for Qur'ans to be produced either in a style that was remarkably small in scale or remarkably large (Bernard Quaritch, 'The Maghribi School. From Cordoba to Bornu', The Qur'an and Calligraphy, Catalogue 1213, p.21). The present Qur'an would appear to be an early example of the former. They were generally written with a fine nib and strong horizontal emphasis, with many letters extended horizontally and with relatively short vertical elements. Text could thus be arranged with as many as twenty-nine lines to the page. This smaller script has become known as andalusi as opposed to the larger maghribi. A number of these manuscripts in the smaller hand have colophons often giving the place of production. At least five of these manuscripts are from Valencia, but others were copied in Cordoba, as the present example, Ceuta, Marrakesh and Seville. It is presumed that the script continued to be employed for copying the Qur'an in Nasrid Granada, as well as in Morocco (Quaritch, op. cit., p. 22).