PROBABLY NORTH AFRICA, 9TH CENTURY

The script used in these two folios matches most closely with what François Déroche terms 'D.IV' script. Generally small in size and used - as in this case - on manuscripts with 15 or 16 lines to a page, the script is characterised by the flattened hook on independent alef, the enlarged head of final nun, and the elongation of letters like ta', daal, and kaaf (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Oxford, 1992, p.88). It is not possible, given the current evidence, to attribute this with any particular region, since samples of D.IV have been discovered in caches across the Abbasid Near East in Kairouan, Cairo, Damascus, and Sana'a (Déroche, op. cit., p.36). Nonetheless, the survival of a waqf deed written in this script dated to the year AH 329/883-4 AD suggests that our folios most likely were written in the ninth century. This also matches with the current understanding of the date of the so-called Blue Qur'an, the script of which is closely related to D.IV.