NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA, LATE 8TH CENTURY

This leaf comes from a dispersed Qur'an manuscript which has previously been attributed to the 9th or 10th Century. Francois Déroche however has argued convincingly, due to the striking use of mashq or horizontally extended letters, for the attribution of this Qur'an to the late 8th Century, (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992, no.66, pp.120-22). The illumination consisting of abstract geometric motifs and vegetal shapes in earthy colours with the absence of gold also suggests an early date of production for this Qur'an folio. Two further folios from this same Qur'an were sold at Christie's, 15th October 1996, lot 47, and at Sotheby's, 29 April 1998, lot 2.

Other folios from this Qur'an are in various collections including The David Collection, (Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbaek and Peder Mortensen (eds.), Sultan, Shah, and Great Mughal, The National Museum, Copenhagen, 1996, no.93, pp.136 and 141), 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).