Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Qur'an leaf in Kufic Script [MANUSCRIPT]

(Qur'an)

North Africa [?]: circa 800 C.E. Matted. Vellum leaf from Qur'an (18 by 23.5 cm). Text on verso and recto, 13 lines per page, in Kufic script penned in brown ink with some diacriticals in red. Darkening/mild staining, particularly at margins; several tiny perforations in text block (not impeding legibility). Good.

Text from Surat al-Baqarah (The Cow), the second and longest chapter of the Qur'an. Among it many topics, the sura recounts the stories of Adam, Abraham, and Moses, enjoins fasting during the month of Ramadan, prohibits usury, and encourages the pagans and Jews of Medina to embrace Islam.

The Kufic style of lettering originates as a "monumental script which may be said to have reached its fullness in the last half of the second century A.H. which ended in 815 A.D. This script is clearly the outcome of a deliberate aspiration, impelled by the consciousness of the need for a more hieratic form of lettering, a need that had prompted more than one attempt in the direction of sacred art. The form which finally succeeded and prevailed takes its name from the Iraqi town of Kufah which was one of the earliest centres of Islamic learning" (Lings). Good. Item #55707

References: M. Lings, The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination (Boulder, 1978), p. 16.

Price: $15,000.00