Folio from the "Tashkent Qur'an"

Unknown

late 8th–early 9th century · Ink on parchment · Islamic Art

Magnificent in size, this folio comes from one of the oldest surviving Qur'an manuscripts in existence. It is written in an early version of the kufic script with no diacritical marks to distinguish the letters, and with very limited illumination. Based on the form of the script, and the illuminations that do survive on other pages from this Qur'an, the book has been attributed to Cairo, Egypt; Damascus, Syria; or Sana'a, Yemen. About one third of the original manuscript is housed in the Hast-Imam Library in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 8th–early 9th century

Medium

Ink on parchment

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2004