Lot 5
A FINE QUR'AN FOLIO IN MAGHRIBI SCRIPT
NORTH AFRICA, TUNISIA, 15TH/ 16TH CENTURY
Auction: 10 June 2026 from 14:00 BST
Description
Arabic manuscript on high-quality paper, 7 lines writing in elegant maghribi script in sepia ink, gold and red medalion verse separators, and a gold ashr in the margin
Dimensions
26.6cm x 21cm
Provenance
Acquired from the London art market in circa 1995.
Footnote
This folio, which contains the text of Q.5:48-49, is part of a small but important group which can be attributed to late 15th or early 16th century Hafsid Tunisia. Many of these were carried away as the spoils of war by the forces of Charles V when he conquered Tunis in 1535, and this date provides a helpful terminus ante quem for their production. One such example with seven lines is a Qur’an dedicated on the death of the Hafsid prince Abdallah Muhammad al-Masʿud in 893 AH/1487 CE, now in the Kantonsbibliothek Vadiana (inv. no. VadSlg Ms 387), which is also extremely close in terms of its calligraphic style with distinctive ‘dancing’ lam-alifs and the elongation of certain forms such as the body of the kafand the bowl shape of the final nun. Other seven-line Qur’an manuscripts from this period include examples from Tunisia, such as those in the Bibliothèque nationale, Tunis (inv. no. MS 3443) and Musée des Arts Islamiques, Raqqada (inv. no. Rutbi 191) [for these manuscripts, see Hinrichsen, L., The Lost Libraries of Tunis: Book Culture of Ḥafṣid Ifrīqiya and Arabic Manuscripts in Europe after the Sack of Tunis (1535), De Gruyter: 2024, p. 240 no. Q013, p. 241 no. Q015, p. 243 no. Q018].