Images do not show the entire leaf. **

Recto Closer Look

Verso Closer Look

Description


    Overall leaf dimensions:  34.5 cm high x 21.3 cm wide **

    Folio from a dispersed manuscript copy of the Qur'an.
    Inner margin of page edge is cut.
    Stiff, very thin cream colored linen paper.
    Paper surface has been burnished.
    Chain and rule lines are visible in the paper.
    No watermarks are visible.
   
    
    
Recto


 
    Fifteen lines of text written in black ink with some accents 
    written in red.
    The text is divided into two sections by three large panels 
    (first, eighth and fifteenth lines) written in a large Muhaqqaq script.  
    Between the large panels are two sections of six lines each written in 
    a smaller Muhaqqaq script.
    Golden dots serve as verse dividers.
    On either side of the smaller text block sections are vertically oriented 
    rectangular sections of golden floral and leaf decorations. 
    The lines of text and sections are divided by and contained inside 
    ruled borders. The multiple lines of varying thickness and numbers making 
    up the borders are drawn in black blue, red, green and gold.
    Outside the main text block border is another enclosing border. **  
    This is composed of a thin double line border in black ink which is 
    unconnected to the others (inner ones) on the page.  Its lines would 
    have originally joined (met) a similar border on the adjacent page 
    forming a box around the text blocks of a double paged spread.
    
 


Verso


    Fifteen lines of text written in black ink with some accents 
    written in red.
    The text is divided into two sections by three large panels 
    (first, eighth and fifteenth lines) written in a large Muhaqqaq script.  
    Between the large panels are two sections of six lines each written in 
    a smaller Muhaqqaq script.
    Golden dots serve as verse dividers.
    On either side of the smaller text block sections are vertically oriented 
    rectangular sections of golden floral and leaf decorations. 
    The lines of text and sections are divided by and contained inside 
    ruled borders. The multiple lines of varying thickness and numbers making 
    up the borders are drawn in black blue, red, green and gold.
    Outside the main text block border is another enclosing border. **  
    This is composed of a thin double line border in black ink which is 
    unconnected to the others (inner ones) on the page.  Its lines would 
    have originally joined (met) a similar border on the adjacent page 
    forming a box around the text blocks of a double paged spread.
    At the bottom left of the page is a catchword (first word or letters 
    of the start of the next page).
    Dealer (Griffon's Medieval Manuscripts, Inc.) catalog number 21467 is
    written in pencil lower right corner of page.
 
    



Additional notes 
     



     **  This leaf is currently housed in an archival matting. The images (above) 
     do not show the entire page.  They show only the central section of the leaf. 
     The outer page border and page edges are not visible in the images (covered in 
     part, by the matting).
     
     
     The Muhaqqaq script is recognized by its tall, slender verticals and 
     shallow sweeping sub-linear strokes.
     

     The format and style of this Qur'an with its three lines of large Muhaqqaq 
     script dividing two sections of smaller script is reminiscent of manuscripts 
     from earlier periods. This elegant page layout is sometimes referred to as the 
     royal format.