A LOOSE KUFIC QUR'AN FOLIO
Near East or North Africa, 9th - 10th century

Sura At-Tur (52), vv. 19 - 24, Arabic manuscript on vellum, the verso and recto with 7ll. to the page of elegant sepia ink Kufic script with frequent mashq (letter stretching), diacritics in red and greenish blue, verse markers in the form of lobed gold rosettes, illuminated hizb marker with inscription on the right margin of the verso, mounted, glazed and set in a double-sided frame, the folio 13.1cm x 20.2cm, 35.8cm x 50cm including the frame.

This Kufic Qur'an folio presents a well-measured use of mashq or keshide (extension of the horizontal letters) and spacing between words. The script matches the finest examples of Abbasid Kufic from the 9th and early 10th centuries with rounded waws, open loops, and the kaf folding on itself like a hairpin, in a calligraphic form encountered in early Egyptian papyrus documents and letters from 8th - 9th-century Fustat. Several other Kufic folios of the same period have been successfully sold in these Rooms, please see 3 May 2019, lot 1, and 28 October 2022, lots 429 and 430.