MERINID OR WATTASID MOROCCO, 15TH CENTURY

This manuscript, which was probably originally a full quarter of the Qur'an, represents a transitional example of a Maghribi manuscript. Many of the scribal features are reminiscent of 14th century manuscripts. The gold kufic sura headings in particular are reminiscent of earlier manuscripts, such as a manuscript which was included in the Ink and Gold exhibition at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, 15 July-31 August 2006. That manuscript included a colophon giving not only the name of the patron but also the date, the end of Rabi' I AH 718/May 1318 AD (Marcus Fraser and Will Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Islamic Calligraphy, Berlin, 2006, p.72, no.21). The verse divisions in that manuscript also consist of groups of three gold roundels arranged a triangle with red and blue dots, much as in ours. A manuscript of similar style to that example is in the David Collection, Copenhagen (acc.no.32.1974).

The most obvious way in which our manuscript differs from those is that it is written on paper, not parchment. Unlike other parts of the Islamic world, in the Maghrib parchment continued in use into the 15th century. Perhaps it was the delayed development of indigenous papermaking which meant that Italian paper quickly became dominant in the Maghrib: a 1409 fatwa issued by Abu Abdallah ibn Marzuq in Tlemcen discussed the permissibility of using kaghid al-rum - Christian paper - and suggested that by the early 15th century local production had been all but supplanted (Johnathan Bloom, Paper before Print, New Haven, 2001, p.87). Another aspect of this manuscript which suggests a later date is the appearance of illuminated saad letters above the text, an element of a Qur'anic division which was not developed until the 15th century.

The manuscript likely predates Saadian Quran manuscripts, which often included ruled lines around the Qur'anic text. Saadian Qur'ans such as those in the British Library (MS.Or.1340) and in the Escorial palace show quite a different script to this lot. Ours therefore dates from a moment where, although paper had been adopted, scribes were continuing to produce manuscripts in much the same way as they had in the past few centuries of Islamic history in North Africa and Spain.