NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA, SECOND HALF 8TH CENTURY

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).