QUR’AN LEAF ON VELLUM
Text: surah An-nisa (XXXVII), part of verse 25 to part of verse 37
Arabic manuscript on vellum, 14 lines to the page, written in black elongated Kufic script, verses separated by small triangular clusters of three gold dots, vocalisation represented by red and yellow dots, wide outer margins, with a gold rosette.
25 by 32.5cm
This Qur’an leaf originates from an unusual manuscript which in its entirety must have been of exceptional quality. The execution of the text accords to Déroche’s ‘group F’ in his categorisation of early Arabic scripts used for copying the Qur’an (see F. Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, London, 1992, p.42). The characteristics of this style are a consistent mashq, or ‘stretching’ of the letter forms, which Déroche notes is a feature typical of leaves from Damascus. Other characteristics of the individual letters are a relatively extenuated alif, a predominently circular mim, and the almost symmetrical shape of the lam-alif form.
