main text in andalusi script, incidentals in Kufic and naskh; 25 lines to the page

122 folios; 17 x 16cm

The text is written in a fine andalusi hand, with surah headings in single-line gold Kufic, except for the headings to surahs I and II, which are written in a different Kufic in white in illuminated panels. The 2-page colophon, which is written in gold naskh, states that the manuscript is the work of a hitherto unknown scribe, Yusuf ibn ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Yusuf ibn Khaldun, and that it was copied for Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Biyatush al-Makhzumi. To judge from his great grandfather’s Christian name Beatus, the patron was of Spanish stock.

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.20, pp.92–5. J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.64, pp.74–5.