Enrica Medugno
Sale Coordinator
Lot 1
A Qur'an leaf written in kufic script on vellum Near East or North Africa, 9th-10th Century
23 May 2023, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A Qur'an leaf written in kufic script on vellum
Near East or North Africa, 9th-10th Century
Near East or North Africa, 9th-10th Century
Arabic manuscript on vellum, seven lines to the page written in bold kufic script in black ink, vowel points marked with red dots, small pyramids of gold dots marking verses, a large medallion in gold marking the tenth verse, consisting of the word ashr in kufic script within concentric lobed cartouches, decorated with coloured dots, later pagination (177 and 129 on recto, 178 and 89 on verso), cover paper
231 x 325 mm.
231 x 325 mm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 24th April 2012, lot 1.
Text
Sura LXXVI, ad-Dahr, Time, or al-Insan, Man, part of verse 9-part of verse 13.
This fine leaf is one of several surviving from the same Qur'an manuscript. One of its distinctive features, reflecting the highest quality of calligraphy, is the horizontal stretching of the letters (mashq).
Other leaves from this Qur'an manuscript are in the Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran (inv. 4289; illustrated in M. Lings, The Qur'anic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, Westerham 1976, no. 5). Others appeared at Christie's, 27th April 2004, lot 14; Sotheby's, Doha, 19th March 2009, lot 303; and more recently, Christie's, 6th October 2011, lots 1-3.