Ninth century Quran leaf

[Qur'an]. Separate leaf from a Kufic manuscript on vellum.

Abbasidic (Near East), ca. 850 CE / 9th century.

187 x 276 mm. With a rosette gilt and in gouache colour. Diacritical marks added later in black ink, vocalization marks in red (as well as one in green and one in blue). 5 lines.

 18,000.00

Well-preserved leaf in monumental Kufic script (line height c. 30 mm), written in dark brown ink. The text is from the middle part of verse 109 of the second Quran sura. The script style belongs to group D (according to Déroche's classification, subtype D.III). Similar examples are usually dated to the 9th century C.E. (cf. François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Vol. I, nos. 25 [p. 76] and 34/35 [p. 84]). The polychromatic rosette shows an inscribed number: The red dots are vocalisation marks; the diacritics (in the form of small slashes) were added later in black ink.

Some browning and staining. Brittle in places due to ink corrosion (minor defects to vellum). Verso rubbed, but still legible.

References

Cf. Fingernagel (ÖNB 2010), p. 33.

Stock Code: BN#33402 Tags: , ,