Qur'an leaf in kufic script on vellum, 8th century

5 lines per page written in bold kufic script in brown ink on vellum, letter-pointing of black dots (added later), vocalisation of red dots (some possibly added later), single verse divisions marked with three short diagonal dashes in brown ink, ten verse divisions marked by relevant abjad letters in gold kufic within small illuminated panel, 20.2 by 30.3cm.Other leaves from this Qur'an include a recently published section in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic Museum, Jerusalem (Salameh 2001, pp.47-55, no.5), one leaf in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London (Déroche 1992, p.65, no.17).The abjad letters used here are the letter sad to mark the sixtieth verse and the letter `ayn to mark the seventieth verse. The letter sad is pertinent in that it was only used in the Western abjad system, thus indicating that this manuscript is most likely to have been a North African or Levantine production. Photography/ Text © Sotheby´sJOC provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes and makes no warranty with regard to their use for other purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemption. JOC has made every reasonable effort to locate and acknowledge copyright owners and wishes to be informed by any copyright owners who are not properly identified and acknowledged on this website so that we may make any necessary corrections.