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Lot Essay
This folio has a number of very impressive marginal markers, which denote various verse divisions. On the recto the square marker with white kufic letters represents the first quarter of the fourth fifth and the half of the seventh tenth of the text. Below it is a round hizb marker. The verso has two lobed medallions containing verse counts according to various traditions. The upper one gives the verse count as 3,600 according to the second Medinan tradition. The second gives it as 3,300 according to a different tradition.
The attribution of these striking pink folios to Spain is based primarily on the use of paper. In North Africa, parchment remained the preferred material for the writing of Qur'ans into the 19th century. Spain, however, had been manufacturing and using high quality paper for manuscripts of all kinds for some time. Manuscripts like this one, on pink dyed paper are believed to have been produced in Jativa, near Valencia, the site of the earliest documented paper mill in Spain (Marcus Fraser and Will Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Masterpieces of Islamic Calligraphy, London, 2006, p.64).
A number of folios from this manuscript are in public collections, while others have appeared at auction. 215 folios, formerly in the collection of Maréchal Lyautey were sold at the Hotel Georges V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488, and quickly appeared at Sotheby's, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Other leaves from this manuscript have since sold at Christie's London, including a single folio and a bifolio, 26 April 2012, lots 135 and 136, and a folio on 10 October 2013, lot 70. More recently a single folio with an illuminated sura heading sold at Christie's London, 23 April 2015, lot 29.
The attribution of these striking pink folios to Spain is based primarily on the use of paper. In North Africa, parchment remained the preferred material for the writing of Qur'ans into the 19th century. Spain, however, had been manufacturing and using high quality paper for manuscripts of all kinds for some time. Manuscripts like this one, on pink dyed paper are believed to have been produced in Jativa, near Valencia, the site of the earliest documented paper mill in Spain (Marcus Fraser and Will Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Masterpieces of Islamic Calligraphy, London, 2006, p.64).
A number of folios from this manuscript are in public collections, while others have appeared at auction. 215 folios, formerly in the collection of Maréchal Lyautey were sold at the Hotel Georges V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488, and quickly appeared at Sotheby's, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Other leaves from this manuscript have since sold at Christie's London, including a single folio and a bifolio, 26 April 2012, lots 135 and 136, and a folio on 10 October 2013, lot 70. More recently a single folio with an illuminated sura heading sold at Christie's London, 23 April 2015, lot 29.