Leaf from a copy of the Qur'an written in a Kufic style, ink, gold and colour on parchment, Middle East, probably Iraq, 800 to 900

Leaf from a manuscript, written in black ink on parchment, five lines of text to the page in the Kufic style D.I (Déroche), with diacritical marks in the form of thin diagonal strokes of ink (contemporary with the calligraphy), and vowels and other features indicated by a system of coloured dots (perhaps added later). The text is from the surah al-Baqarah (The Cow), part of verse 30 (from الملائكة) and all of verse 31. The end of verse 30 is marked by a small rosette drawn in ink, painted in gold and with a coloured centre, now discoloured (probably added later). The parchment is discoloured in places, and there are holes, probably made by vermin. Loss of ink on the hair side of the parchment (the recto).

Purchased

This leaf was part of the collection of Emmanuel Segradakis (1890-1948), an art collector and dealer born in Crete in 1890, who moved to France in the beginning of the century. During his life he assembled a remarkable collection of early Qur’anic manuscripts which was sold at auction in Rennes, France, on 19 September 2011. This leaf was lot 163 of that sale.

This leaf comes from what was a very fine copy of the Qur'an, which must have been very large, as there are very few words to the page. The manuscript will probably have been used over a long period. When it eventually went out of use, it could not be thrown away or destroyed as it contained the word of God. Wherever it was then kept, it was vulnerable to damage, including attack by vermin, which may have created the holes in the parchment, and to changes in humidity and other environmental issues over a very long time.

ME.12-2013