CAIRO, EGYPT, FIRST HALF 14TH CENTURY

The distinctive and elegant gold sura headings of this section, which have three dots beneath the initial sin, are almost identical to those found in a Qur’an manuscript dated AH 730/1330-31 AD commissioned by Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (who reigned intermittently between 1293 and 1341) and signed by Muhammad bin Bilbek al-Muhsini, now in the Keir Collection (David James, Qur’ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, cat.12, p.224). The body of the script of our Qur’an with the nuns which regularly curve underneath the following letters is also very similar to the style of the script of the Keir Collection Qur’an. Such is the similarity between the two that our manuscript must also have been copied by al-Muhsini and may also have been a royal commission.

For a complete list of the Qur'an sections included in this manuscript, please contact the department.