Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript

Unknown

late 9th–early 10th century · Ink and gold on parchment · Islamic Art

Like many early Qur'an folios, this one is written on parchment in black ink with a broad-nibbed reed pen. The horizontally elongated letters seen here are characteristic of early kufic Qur'ans on parchment, and are thought to be a response to the rectangular page format. The angular script is moderated by the roundness of several letters that look like large black dots, their inner blank spaces reduced almost to a needlepoint. Red and green dots indicate the vowel marks.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 9th–early 10th century

Medium

Ink and gold on parchment

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of Rudolf M. Riefstahl, 1930