Title: Bifolium of a 10th century Abbasi Qur’an |صفحتان من القران من قرن العاشر
Scribe: Unknown | مجهول
Script: New Style Abbasi (NSI / NSIII)/ Eastern Kufic
Date: ~4th Century Hijri (~288H to 391H) / 10th Century CE (~ 901CE to 1000CE)
Size: 17 X 19 CM
Folios: 2 Fol.
Description: 15 Lines/Page | Parchment with some worn edges | Sepia Ink with rubrication of vocalization and diactiric marks. Surah title in red Abbasi script| Three red roundels in pyramid form marks every 10th verse. | Good condition, some faded text. There are some notations on the margin in a different hand |Surat ar-Room Verse 41 to Surat Luqman, Verse 22
Incipit: الفساد في البر والبحر بما كسبت ايدي الناس ليذيقهم بعض الذي عملوا لعلهم يرجعون
Explicit: وَمَن يُسْلِمْ وَجْهَهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ فَقَدِ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَىٰ
Provenance: A private collection in London, UK
Research Notes: The script in this bifolium is an early depicition of the New Style Abbassid classification of Francois Deroche (1992, pg 136-137). There is a combination of the NS.I & NS.III letterforms. For instance: the stand alone Alif has a wavy form as in NS.III, but the Ha, Jeem, & Khaa ح ج خ in the middle form is clearly NS.I. The Laam/Alif لا matches NS.I and resembles B.II New Style or the C.Ia of the Early Abbasi script. The Nun ن matches NS.III and the Meem م matches NS.I in its middle and end forms. The ‘Ayn ع / Ghayn غ matches NS.I closer than NS.III in its middle form, but in some starting forms the ‘Ayn matches NS.III more than NS.I. The Laam is wavy like the NS.III script. The Haa ه matches NS.I style The Taa/zhaa ط/ظ follow a similar pattern to NS.I & NS.III, but it hard to decipher which it is resembles more. It’s likely that this is an early 10th century manuscript with a transitionary or early form of the New Style Abbassi script. There is a lot of similarity with the Group D of Deroche’s classification system. |
A similar bifolium sold at Chiswick’s Islamic & Indian Art including Carpets on May 03, 2019 for around $3500.
Accession #: Ms.112ff.