Qurʾan, twenty-one leaves

Accession number: 
MS M.712
Title: 
Qurʾan, twenty-one leaves
Created: 
Iraq, before 911.
Binding: 
Formerly bound in 1940 in dark blue gold-tooled morocco by Marguerite Duprez Lahey; rebound by Deborah Evetts in full natural Irish linen in 1984.
Credit: 
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1915.
Description: 
21 leaves (9 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 230 x 320 mm
Provenance: 
The manuscript in its entirety was donated by ʻAbd al-Munʻim ibn Aḥmad to the Great Mosque of Damascus (Jāmiʻ al-Umawī al-Kabīr) in the month of Dhū al-Qaʻda 298 (July 911); this particular fragment purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) from Professor R. Meyer Riefstahl (1880-1936) in 1915.
Notes: 

Ms. written and illuminated before 911, possibly in Iraq.
Texts: sura 27, al-Naml (the Ant), verses 56-83 (fol. 1v-5); sura 28, al-Qaṣaṣ (the Story), verse 28, to sura 29, al-ʻAnkabūt (the Spider), verse 12 (fol. 6-21).
Fragments of this manuscript are preserved by the Chester Beatty Library (3 leaves); D. S. Rice ; the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul (Topkapı Saraı Müzesi) (39 leaves); the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul (Türk ve Ịslâm Eserleri Müzesi) (1 leaf); and the National Museum, Damascus (Matḥaf Dimashq) (1 leaf).
Decoration: written in black ink with short diagonal lines for diacriticals and vocalization indicated by red dots; a pyramid of six gold disks follows each verse; every fifth verse if followed by a gold letter hāʾ; every tenth verse is followed by a larger circular device with the cumulative verse count inscribed in the center and with a border in one of several forms: rinceaux, palmette, arcades; heading of sura 29 on fol. 19v is written in gold outlined in black, with a white contour line setting it off from the background; an undulating vine with gold palmettes fills the space above and below the writing, interstices painted in olive and tan.

Script: 
Kufic
Language: 
Arabic
Classification: