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Lot Essay
There has been discussion as to where the Qur'an from which this folio comes originates. It has previously been attributed to 10th century Tunis, (Toby Falk (ed.), Treasures of Islam, Geneva 1985, no. 4, p.37), but François Déroche has since linked it to material from Damascus. He bases this on the extensive use of mashq - a marked elongation of the script's horizontal progression, allowing the calligrapher to adjust the length of each line to the page as a whole and adding a special character to the script (Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbaek and Peder Mortensen (eds.), Sultan, Shah, and Great Mughal, Copenhagen, 1996, no. 93, p. 141).
Whilst the red dots denote the vowels, Déroche points out that the diacritical strokes are a later addition, as many calligraphers were initially against using aids that made the text more legible. On the basis of this, Déroche dates other pages from the same manuscript in the Khalili Collection to the late 8th century (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992, no.66, p.120-22).
Other leaves from this Qur'an were sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1996, lots 45-48, 12 October 2004, lot 1 and more recently 23 October 2007, lot 1 and 6 October 2009, lot 1. Others have sold at Sotheby's 23 April 1997, lot 40, 29 April 1998, lots 1-2, and 13 April 2000, lots 2-3. Further folios are in various collections including The David Collection, (see Kjeld von Folsach et al, op. cit., p. 136 and 141, no. 93), the al-Sabah Collection (Ghada Hijjawi Qaddumi, Variety in Unity, Kuwait 1987, LNS 101 MS (b), p.25), and ten leaves in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), Islamic Art, Los Angeles 1973, no. 141).
Whilst the red dots denote the vowels, Déroche points out that the diacritical strokes are a later addition, as many calligraphers were initially against using aids that made the text more legible. On the basis of this, Déroche dates other pages from the same manuscript in the Khalili Collection to the late 8th century (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992, no.66, p.120-22).
Other leaves from this Qur'an were sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1996, lots 45-48, 12 October 2004, lot 1 and more recently 23 October 2007, lot 1 and 6 October 2009, lot 1. Others have sold at Sotheby's 23 April 1997, lot 40, 29 April 1998, lots 1-2, and 13 April 2000, lots 2-3. Further folios are in various collections including The David Collection, (see Kjeld von Folsach et al, op. cit., p. 136 and 141, no. 93), the al-Sabah Collection (Ghada Hijjawi Qaddumi, Variety in Unity, Kuwait 1987, LNS 101 MS (b), p.25), and ten leaves in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), Islamic Art, Los Angeles 1973, no. 141).