Single Folio from a Qur’an

Location: Middle East

Materials: ink and watercolour on vellum

Dimensions: 47 x 33cm

Accession Number: KFQ 50

Other Notes:

Text: surah Yunus (X), verse 90 to surah Hud (XI), verse 3.

The text has diacritical strokes to distinguish consonants and red dots to indicate the vocalization. Yellow lozenges outlined in black separate the verses. An alif in red and green, and a red square mark the passage of five and ten verses respectively. The two surahs are separated by a decorative band of yellow and green lozenges, followed by the title of the second of the two surahs, written twice, in black and in red. Many of the monumental letter-forms resemble those seen in copies of the Qur’an written in Hijazi script.

Script:

copied in a transitional Hijazi – ‘early Abbasid’ Kufic script; 20 lines to the page

Bibliography:

F. Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. I, London 1992, cat.4, pp.48–9.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.2, p.31…