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Orientations | Volume 55 Number 4 | JULY/AUGUST 2024 obvious form of extravagance pertains to the parchment used for these manuscripts. Due to their format, the size of the letters, and ample margins, the parent manuscripts of the two leaves comprised around 450 and 650 leaves respectively, which would have required the processed hides of several hundred sheep. The commissioning of such lavish Qur’an manuscripts was frowned upon by some religious scholars, but for rulers with disposable funds, it was clearly an attractive way of honouring the word of God and projecting their own wealth and power. Kufi remained the dominant Qur’an script throughout the 8th and 9th centuries, but the 10th century saw the emergence of an 8 Leaf from a Qur’an in various script styles Probably Yemen; first half of the 14th century Ink and gold on paper; 39 x 32.2 cm The David Collection Photo: Pernille Klemp 38 codified angular version of the Arabic script is visually linked with the script used in the public inscriptions of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and it seems likely that it was developed by court calligraphers as an official script worthy of conveying the word of God and, by extension, the splendour of the caliphate. Apart from the carefully planned layout and closely regulated script, some Qur’ans written in Kufi script are also characterized by a new and extravagant style of embellishment that includes the use of gold, silver, and other precious colourants. On two Qur’an leaves from the 9th and early 10th centuries respectively (figs 4 and 5), each letter has been drawn up in liquid glue and subsequently covered with a thin layer of gold. On one leaf (see fig. 4), the text is also bordered by ornate gold patterning. On the other (see fig. 5), the circular verse markers are covered in silver (now faded). The leaf itself has been dyed blue with indigo, earning its parent manuscript the name ‘The Blue Qur’an’. A less
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alternative script that combined some of the thick and angular elements of Kufi with more slender, curved, and elongated strokes. This script is known under several names such as Eastern Kufi, Broken Cursive, or New Style, and it can be seen in an extra bold version on a double leaf from a famous Qur’an manuscript from 11th century Tunisia (fig. 6). A trait to note here is the thin and elongated descending pen strokes that instil a lightness to the text despite the heavy rhomboid loops of many letters. The parent manuscript of the double leaf is known as ‘The Nurse’s Qur’an’ since its colophon proclaims that it was commissioned by Fatima, the nurse of the Zirid ruler al-Muizz ibn Badis (r. 1016–62). The colophon also mentions the two calligraphers involved in the production of the manuscript. One is named Ali ibn Ahmad al-Warraq (the copyist) and the other, a woman, is named Durra al-Katiba (the scribe). Going further west from Tunisia to Morocco and Spain, we encounter a set of Qur’an leaves from the 13th–14th century written in another modified version of Kufi (fig. 7). Known as Maghribi, this script is characterized by a marked roundedness in the letter loops, the deeply curving descenders, and the ascending strokes that end with a soft rounded protrusion instead of a sharp cut. This soft and rounded look is partially due to the fact that calligraphers of the western Islamic lands wrote with tapered and slightly rounded pens rather than the obliquely cut pens used by their colleagues to the east. Besides the script, the two leaves are also marked by a colourfulness distinctive of Qur’ans from the west. The small auxiliary signs that float around the letters are painted in gold and a clear blue, and the leaves themselves have a tender pink hue. This latter trait has led the twenty-volume manuscript from which these leaves hail to be named ‘The Pink Qur’an’. 9 Fragment of a leaf from the ‘Qur’an of Timur’ Uzbekistan, Samarkand; c. 1400–05 Ink and gold on paper; 45 x 98 cm The David Collection Photo: Pernille Klemp 39

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Orientations | Volume 55 Number 4 | JULY/AUGUST 2024

obvious form of extravagance pertains to the parchment used for these manuscripts. Due to their format, the size of the letters, and ample margins, the parent manuscripts of the two leaves comprised around 450 and 650 leaves respectively, which would have required the processed hides of several hundred sheep. The commissioning of such lavish Qur’an manuscripts was frowned upon by some religious scholars, but for rulers with disposable funds, it was clearly an attractive way of honouring the word of God and projecting their own wealth and power.

Kufi remained the dominant Qur’an script throughout the 8th and 9th centuries, but the 10th century saw the emergence of an

8 Leaf from a Qur’an in various script styles Probably Yemen; first half of the 14th century Ink and gold on paper; 39 x 32.2 cm The David Collection Photo: Pernille Klemp

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codified angular version of the Arabic script is visually linked with the script used in the public inscriptions of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and it seems likely that it was developed by court calligraphers as an official script worthy of conveying the word of God and, by extension, the splendour of the caliphate.

Apart from the carefully planned layout and closely regulated script, some Qur’ans written in Kufi script are also characterized by a new and extravagant style of embellishment that includes the use of gold, silver, and other precious colourants. On two Qur’an leaves from the 9th and early 10th centuries respectively (figs 4 and 5), each letter has been drawn up in liquid glue and subsequently covered with a thin layer of gold. On one leaf (see fig. 4), the text is also bordered by ornate gold patterning. On the other (see fig. 5), the circular verse markers are covered in silver (now faded). The leaf itself has been dyed blue with indigo, earning its parent manuscript the name ‘The Blue Qur’an’. A less

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