Single Folio from a Qur’an

Location: perhaps Yemen

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper

Dimensions: 39.2 x 32cm

Accession Number: QUR 850, QUR 1092

Other Notes:

Text: surah Luqman (XXXI), verse 33 to surah al-Sajdah (XXXII), verse 7.

The lay-out of the text is impressive: the top and bottom lines of each page are in black muhaqqaq outlined in gold, and the middle line, the seventh, is in gold thulth outlined in black. This variety of scripts on a single page, and the type of surah heading, which is more often seen in Ilkhanid work, suggest that the Qur’an was written outside Mamluk Egypt, perhaps in the Yemen under the Rasulids.

The Collection has recently acquired the remaining pages of this Qur’an manuscript (QUR 1092). The text is incomplete, with gaps where folios have been removed, and the opening and closing folios are more recent replacements. 

Script:

copied in naskh, muhaqqaq and thulth scripts, incidentals in Kufic; 13 lines to the page

Bibliography:

D. James, The Master Scribes. Qur’ans of the 10th to 14th Centuries AD, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume II, London 1992, cat.40, pp.160–61.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.165, pp.142–3.