A KUFIC QURAN SECTION NEAR EAST OR NORTH AFRICA,... Lot n° 1

Arabic manuscript on vellum, 33 leaves with 9 lines to the page written in elongated Kufic in dark brown ink. The surah titles and verse counts are written in gold outlined in black, with fine marginal vignettes. There are no diacritical marks and red dots indicate the vocalization. Three gold dots separate the verses, a gold pear-shaped ornament marks the end of every fifth verse and a gold circular device every tenth verse. Text: surah Al-Nahl complete, surah Al-Isra'a complete, surah Al-Kahf v.1- v.74. 17.5 by 10.8 cm CATALOGUE NOTE This Kufic section is a remarkable survival. Unlike most of the Kufic folios which appear on the market – either as single pages or as small sections – the lot offered here retains 33 consecutive folios. All are remarkably clean and well preserved and give us some idea of what these Kufic manuscripts would have been like when they were first conceived. The script relates to that found on a folio in the Khalili collection, which is attributed by François Déroche to the end of the 9th or beginning of the 10th century. He terms the scripts style ‘D.Va’ (Déroche, 1992, p.98, no.44). Déroche describes his ‘group D’ scripts as the most numerous and various. The D.Va group he dates on the basis of a manuscript in Istanbul which contains a waqf deed dated Jumada II 299 AH/January-February 912 AD (Déroche, 1992, p.37). Unlike ours the Khalili folio has 7 lines to the page, but the script there are stylistically very similar and condensed. A single folio from a similar Quran, but with 8 lines of Kufic, sold at Christie’s, South Kensington, 23 April 2012, lot 108. A similar section Quran with 67 leaves but 7 lines was sold at Sotheby's, London, 24 October 2007, lot 9 This lot was presented as a gift to the daughter of Ahmad Shah Qajar during her marriage ceremony and a marriage certificate is available. LITERATURE F. Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. I, London 1992, cat.44, p.97. J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.8, p.34.