AN EARLY KUFIC QUR'AN FOLIO
AN EARLY KUFIC QUR'AN FOLIO

NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA, SECOND HALF 8TH CENTURY

Details
AN EARLY KUFIC QUR'AN FOLIO
NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA, SECOND HALF 8TH CENTURY
Qur'an XC (sura al-balad), parts of v.17 to Qur'an XCIII (sura al-duha), parts of v.7, Arabic manuscript on vellum, with 14ll. of elongated black kufic script, verse markers in the form of red roundels and white alif letters outlined in black, two sura headings marked with green and red cartouches decorated with stylized rosettes and motifs of dots, each cartouche ending in a palmette-like motif, largely restored, mounted, framed and glazed
Text area 5 ¼ x 8 1/8in. (13.3 x 20.5cm.); folio 6 1/8 x 10 ¼in. (15.5 x 26.1cm.)
Provenance
Christie's, 7 October 2008, lot 3

Lot Essay

The present folio is from a very early Qur'an mushaf, dating to the 8th century. The style of script as well as the illumination of this folio point to a number of examples discovered in the early 1980s in San'a, Yemen. See Masahif San'a, exhibition catalogue, Kuwait, 1985, cat.55, p.41; cat.49, p.44. The absence of contemporary diacritics and the simple vocalization system (occasional red dots) are indications that this folio is from the 8th century (2nd century AH). Qur'ans from the 3rd century AH seem to be more extensively vocalized. On the final line of the present folio, there is a long 're-bent' line for the letter 'ya'. As described in Masahif San'a it demonstrates a 'calligraphic ambition' which already occurs in early Hijazi style (op.cit., cat.29, p.51). For a mushaf where a similar blank 'alif' outlined in ink has been used as verse marker, see folios dated to the second half of the 8th century in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Oxford, 1992, cat.5, pp.49-51).

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