Fragment of Part 18 of a 60-part Qur’an

Location: probably eastern Iran

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; leather binding

Dimensions: 36 folios; 15.7 x 10.4cm

Accession Number: QUR 186

Other Notes:

Although incomplete, the manuscript contains a large portion of part 18 of a 60-part Qur’an. The surviving text runs from surah al-A‘raf (VII), verse 192, to surah al-Anfal (VIII), verse 40. The presentation of the text is unusual both for the use of alternate lines of black and gold thulth and for its four-line format. The wide borders of undulating scrolls left insufficient horizontal space for the lines of text, many of which have been squashed in by writing the final word or words vertically.

The dark-brown leather binding is probably of 13th-century date. 

Script:

text in thulth script, incidentals in thulth and Kufic; 4 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.4, pp.30, 32–3.