PROBABLY KAIROUAN, TUNISIA, FIRST HALF 10TH CENTURY

Further leaves of this Qur'an are in the Al-Sabah Collection (M. Jenkins ed., Islamic Art in the Kuwait National Museum, London 1983, p.19) and in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London, 1992, p.111). Déroche notes that the manuscript from which the folio comes is among the very few early Qur'ans written with three lines to the page, and that these were evidently sought after and very expensive since considerably more parchment and time was needed for their manufacture (Déroche, op. cit., p.109). Further folios and sections from this manuscript have sold at Christie's. See for example 7 October 2008, lot 1, 8 April 2008, lot 19, 17 April 2007, lot 10, 15 October 2002, lot 7 and 13 October 1998, lot 8 and 9.