TWO FOLIOS FROM AN 'EASTERN KUFIC' QUR'AN

IRAN OR IRAQ, 11TH OR 12TH CENTURY

Details

TWO FOLIOS FROM AN 'EASTERN KUFIC' QUR'AN
IRAN OR IRAQ, 11TH OR 12TH CENTURY
Qur'an III (sura al 'umran), vv.116-133, Arabic manuscript on paper, each folio with 17ll. of elegant black eastern kufic script, with gold roundel verse markers outlined in black, diacritics in black, reading marks in green and red, the two consecutive folios mounted together to form a long panel, gold and polychrome illuminated marginal medallions cut out and laid down at top and bottom, probably from the original manuscript, mounted, framed and glazed
Panel 24 1/8 x 8 7/8in. (61.3 x 22.7cm.) (visible)

Lot Essay

Two folios from the same Qur'an are in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Oxford, 1992, cat.95, pp.178-179). The style of script is identified as New Style 1 by Déroche. For a discussion on this style see Déroche, op.cit., pp.132-135. Interestingly, the two Khalili folios are mounted in a similar fashion to the present folios: juxtaposed, with marginal medallions stuck in the upper and lower margins and which suggests that they come from the same source.

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