POSSIBLY IKSHIDID OR EARLY FATIMID EGYPT, 10TH CENTURY

The very tightly configured kufic of this folio, with the strong but separate words and letters, relates to that on an almost complete kufic Qur'an that sold in Christie's, King Street, 23 October 2007, lot 10. Stylistically the script of both examples are closest to what Déroche called one of his 'early Abbasid scripts' which also appears on a Qur'an bifolio in the Khalili Collection dated to the first half of the 10th century (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London, 1992, no.57, p.109). When the Qur'an discussed above was offered it was suggested that it might be either Ikshidid or Fatimid in origin. Our Qur'an folio is likely to share the same provenance. The calligraphy is similar to that found on contemporaneous tiraz fragments - see for example one that was offered in Christie's King Street, 6 October 2011, lot 131. The long letters that terminate in very acute right angles below the line are very similar indeed.

Two other folios from this same Qur'an sold at Christie’s, King Street, 26 April 2012, lot 112 and 4 October 2012, lot 58.