Leaf from an Abbasid Qur'an, on parchment [Abbasid Mesopotamia, first half of the ninth century]

Leaf from a fine Abbasid Qur'an, in Arabic, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Abbasid Mesopotamia, likely first half of the ninth century] single leaf, containing the text from Surah Ghafir (The Forgiver), 40:41-42, single column, 5 lines bold early kufic script in black, highly stylised script with notable elongation to the letters, dots and vocalisation marks in bold gold dots, one larger rosette marking the divide between the two verses present, a small area of corrosion to one letter along final line of verso, else a few small scuffs, edges a little darkened, overall very attractive condition, 150 by 225 mm.; in modern card mount The notably bold and stylised nature of this script is intended to reflect the unadorned written word. The lack of diacritics and vocalisation marked by gold dots are described as uncommon by F. Déroche in discussion about a very similar leaf (see The Abbasid Tradition, 1992, no. 22, p. 70). Another folio from the same Qur'an is in Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul (Ms EH.30).