One of the ambiguities in the history of Islamic
calligraphy is the determination of the regions where each
script prevailed in the first three Hijri centuries. This
ambiguity is due to the dispersion of book leaves and the
lack of reliable colophons in early copies. The J. Paul
Getty Museum preserves a few leaves of a Qur'an that is
one of the significant examples of Early Abbasid style.
This Qur'an was discovered in Kairouan, Tunisia, so
historians have attributed its origin to that place. Yet,
evidence proves it was produced in Central Iran. This
evidence includes the eastern-system diacritic and the
Abjad script used in the sign for the numeral ten
āyahs; moreover, its script resembles the
monumental script of some of the signed New Style Qur'ans
copied in Isfahan and Rayy. Because the Getty Qur'an is
copied in D.I script (the subgroup described by
codicologist and paleographer François Déroche), the D.I
script can be attributed to Central Iran.
Keywords
Qur'an manuscripts, early Kufic script, Early Abbasid
style, regional style, Central Iran
Copied page section link to clipboard
Cite
Chicago
Mahdi Sahragard, “Northern Africa or Central Iran? An
Investigation into the Production Place of a Fragmentary
Kufic Qur’an at the J. Paul Getty Museum,”
Getty Research Journal, no. 19 (2024),
https://doi.org/10.59491/YZUL6030.
MLA
Sahragard, Mahdi. “Northern Africa or Central Iran? An
Investigation into the Production Place of a Fragmentary
Kufic Qur’an at the J. Paul Getty Museum.”
Getty Research Journal, no. 19, 2024,
https://doi.org/10.59491/YZUL6030.
Islamic calligraphy thrived in two main realms in the first
centuries of its flourishing. Officially, it was mostly
employed by those charged with copying the Qur'an and
architectural inscriptions while adhering to prescribed rules
and principles of calligraphy and attending to its aesthetic
aspect through rigorous, direct strokes of the pen
(qalam). Unofficially, it was generally employed in
bureaucratic and everyday affairs, in which scribes used
cursive and mostly unprincipled strokes of the pen. In the
first realm, as early writers such as Ibn al-Nadīm and today’s
researchers show, Hijazi (Makkī/Madanī) scripts shaped the
first stage of writing the Qur'an.1
Some scholars say that the classification of the scripts used
in the Qur'ans of the first Islamic centuries (the seventh to
ninth centuries CE) originated in copies that were preserved
in the Royal Danish Library by Orientalist and theologian
Jacob Georg Christian Adler (1756–1834). Adler, according to
firsthand sources, first used the word Kufic to refer
to the script of the five copies in the library’s collection.
Years later, on the basis of information gained from the
introduction to Al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadīm, Italian
historian Michele Amari (1806–89) proposed the Makkī/Madanī
scripts as the first to be used in copying the Qur'an,2
although later his definitive view was challenged by Qur'anic
paleographer Estelle Whelan and art historian Sheila
Blair.3
Using Adler’s methodology for her 1939 publication, scholar of
early Arabic scripts Nabia Abbott tried to resolve the
discrepancies between texts and the surviving manuscripts by
proposing a classification of scripts into the double
categories of Makkī-Madanī and Basrī-Kufic under the title of
Hijazi scripts.4
Nevertheless, the problem of the diversity of styles and their
nonuniformity with names of calligraphic scripts and terms
from the texts remained unresolved.
On the basis of classification propounded by Muslim historians
such as Nāji Zayn al-dīn in 1972 and Habiballah Faẓāʾilī in
1973,5
another classification was proposed by British scholar Martin
Lings in 1976. In Lings’s classification, Kufic is reckoned to
be the evolved form of the early scripts and, from the tenth
century on, divided into two significant styles: Eastern
Kufic, nearly encompassing Iran, and Western Kufic,
encompassing Andalusia and North and West Africa.6
Despite this classification’s vast geographic and historic
scope, which provided for a more rigorous recognition of
scripts, it did not prevail.
Challenging the term Kufic, codicologist and
paleographer François Déroche proposed a more precise
classification of straight scripts used in the Qur'ans in the
first Islamic centuries. Because of the indeterminacy of the
place and time of the early Kufic script’s genesis, he
regarded Kufic as inappropriate for this style of writing and
proposed replacing it with the term Early Abbasid.
Moreover, he called the Qur'anic scripts of the tenth to
thirteenth centuries—identical to Eastern or Persian Kufic—New
Abbasid. After rigorous study of the letters’ forms—reported
first in 1983 in his book
Les manuscrits du coran: Aux origines de la calligraphie
coranique
(The manuscripts of the Qur'an: Origins of Qur'anic
calligraphy) and then in 1992 in
The Abbasid Tradition—Déroche classified the scripts
of the Qur'an in the seventh to tenth centuries sequentially
as Hijazi scripts (comprising four groups), Early Abbasid
(comprising six groups), and New Style (comprising two
groups).7
This way, he could organize the miscellany of the styles of
the Qur'anic scripts in each of the three periods.8
Group D is the most numerous and diverse group of Early
Abbasid script. It comprises five distinct styles, with one
(D.V) being further divided into three subtypes. Déroche
selected the basic letterforms for the purpose of comparison.
Although the letters alif, mīm,nūn, and hā are rendered in different ways,
their developmental sequence cannot be placed in chronological
order. Generally, all types of Group D exhibit a thick script,
with vertical upstrokes that are always perpendicular to the
baseline.9
As Déroche declares in an elaboration of his method of
classification and analyses of Abbasid style, our lack of
knowledge about the copying of the Qur'an in the eastern part
of the Muslim world is rooted in the fact that the surviving
leaves with Early Abbasid script have mostly been found in the
western part. Due to the unavailability of reliable sources
and copies, Déroche regards the styles of Qur'an scripts in
the east as quite indefinite.10
Considering the evidence available to him at the time, such a
claim seems understandable to some extent, as all the Kufic
Qur'an fragments in the collections of his investigation lack
information on the place of production. Because copies and
manuscripts, such as the Amajur Qur'an,11
were relocated or endowed to certain places, we have no solid
reason to attribute their origins to their places of
discovery. He regards any attempts to pinpoint origins as
futile. This, along with the issue of determining the
historical order of the script styles, are the two
problematics in studies of the Qur'an manuscripts of the first
Islamic centuries.12
Yet, there is evidence in some Qur'an manuscripts that can
help us to determine the geographic scope of certain scripts.
A few surviving leaves of a Qur'an attributed to the ninth
century offer us the possibility of surmising its script
style’s geographic scope. The leaves of this manuscript are
dispersed in different museums and collections; the highest
number are preserved at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Before
dispersion, the manuscript was discovered in Kairouan,
Tunisia. Two leaves are kept in the National Library of
Tunisia (Rutbi 198); therefore, it has been attributed to
Kairouan by historians including Lings13
and to North Africa by catalogers of the Getty Museum.14
Yet, resemblance of its script to the style of the copies
produced in Iran suggests that the place of production of this
Qur'an manuscript was Central Iran. This study investigates
the characteristics of the Getty manuscript’s leaves and
relates evidence for its place of production.
The Fragmentary Kufic Qur'an at the Getty Museum
Ten leaves of a Qur'an manuscript produced in the horizontal
format and written in outlined gold script on parchment are
preserved in the Getty Museum (Ms Ludwig X 1).15
Other leaves are listed in other collections and at auctions.
In what follows, the characteristics of the Getty leaves and
the other leaves’ places of preservation are expounded.
Fragmentary Qur'an from the J. Paul Getty Museum:
3rd century AH/9th century CE, probably Central Iran
Unknown calligrapher
14.4 × 20.8 centimeters, with five lines to the page
Pen and ink, gold paint, and tempera colors on parchment
Text area: 9.3 × 15 centimeters
Script: D.I
Folios 1, 2:
3:122–26
First words: minkum an tafshalā
Last words: bihī va ma al-naṣru
Folios 3, 10:
3:129–31
First words: fi al-arḍ yaghfiru liman yashāʾu
Last words: lilkāfirīna
Folios 4r–6v:
6:106–12
First words: [a]ʿriḍ ʾan al-mushrikīna
Last words: ilā baʿḍin
Folios 7r–9v:
6:116–22
First words: allāh in yattabiʿūna
Last words: kadhālika zuyyina
Other fragments:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Arabe 5178 (Déroche,
Abbasid Tradition, 67).
Tunis, National Library of Tunisia, Rutbi 198 (Lings and
Safadi, The Qur'ān, nos. 16, 17 [two folios
each])
Kairouan, National Museum of Islamic Arts of Raqqada
(Lings and Safadi, The Qur'ān, nos. 18 [one
folio], 19 [two folios], pl. 3)
Sotheby’s, London, 15 October 1984, lot nos. 218–19; 25
June 1985, lot no. 5; 21–22 November 1985, lot nos.
290–91; 22 May 1986, lot no. 248; 1 June 1987, lot no. 78;
2 April 1988, lot no. 114; 10 October 1988, lot no. 170;
10 April 1989, lot no. 169; 26 April 1990, lot no. 140
Christie’s, London, 9 October 1990, lot no. 45
Sotheby’s, London, 2 October 1991, lot no. 892
Sotheby’s, London, 18 October 2001, lot no. 4
Christie’s, London, 23 April 2007, lot no. 3; 4 April
2012, lot nos. 1 and 2
Each folio of text in this Qur'an manuscript includes five
relatively bulky lines, which is evidence of its production as
a several-volume copy. This copy is likely to have been
originally produced in thirty volumes, as five-lined Qur'an
manuscripts were generally divided into thirty separate parts,
called juzʾ.16
If this is true, it might be surmised that each volume must
have been eighty to ninety folios, considering the approximate
number of words on each page.
The ten leaves of the Getty Qur'an constitute five bifolios.
There are five lines on each leaf. Leaves one and two include
āyahs (verses) of ālʿImrān (3:122–26). Other
leaves (folios 3–10) include āyahs of
al-anʿām (6:106–22); apparently, two leaves of this
part of the manuscript have been lost, as these leaves (folios
3–10) do not include āyahs 112–16. Leaf three,
attached to leaf ten, includes āyahs of
ālʿImrān (3:129–31). A rectangular illuminated panel
is on the back of leaf 10v (fig. 1). On
this leaf (recto) is a three-lined frame containing the
following text:
سبع مائه و تسع و خمسون و
عدد حروفه خمسه عشر
الفا و ثمان مائه و اربعون
Seven hundred fifty-nine
number of its letters
fifteen thousand eight hundred forty
ExpandFig. 1. —Illuminated panel on folio 10r of the fragmentary Getty
Qur'an, 3rd century AH/9th century CE, containing the
verse count plus the number of words, letters, and
diacritical points.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, no. Ms. Ludwig X 1 (2),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.Image Description
A yellowed manuscript page showing a rectangular frame
delineated by brown outlines and ornate golden border,
with a medallion on the left edge, containing three lines
of text in brown or dark-blue Arabic script outlined in
gold.
This is part of a longer text, called briefly
verse count, in which the numbers of the Qur'an’s
chapters (suras), words, and letters are expressed. Such text
has been assumed to be a feature of Iranian Qur'ans,17
the most well-known of which is the Ibn al-Bawwab Qur'an of
1001 now in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library in
Dublin (Is. 1431).18
Yet, the most ancient manuscript on paper is three volumes of
a fourteen-part Qur'an written in the vertical format in New
Style in 327 AH/939 CE, which, according to the autograph of
its scribe, was copied in Isfahan (fig. 2). This Qur'an was endowed to the Imam Riza Shrine in the
early tenth century by a person named Kashvād b. Amlās.19
In the beginning of the manuscript (folios 1r, 2v), the verse
count and the date and place of copying are written in golden
Early Abbasid script on two leaves.20
ExpandFig. 2. —Double-page spread from a Qur'an produced in Isfahan,
327 AH/939 CE, containing the verse count plus the
number of words, letters, and diacritical
points;
ink on paper, each folio: 9 × 11 cm. Mashhad, Library of
Astan Quds Razavi, no. 3013, fols. 1v–2r.Image Description
Double-page spread of a bound manuscript showing mirrored,
portrait-orientation ornamental frames containing golden
braided borders outlined in brown, with a medallion on the
outer edge of each frame. Within either frame is five
lines of golden script double-outlined in thin brown.
This information was also expressed in a four-volume Qur'an in
the horizontal format that was endowed to ʾalā al-Dīn Mosque
in Konya, Turkey. Its scribe, Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Yāsīn,
copied it in 383 AH/993 CE in Isfahan (TIEM, nos. 453–56).
According to its precise calligraphy and conspicuous golden
decorations, it was probably produced under the patronage of
the courtiers of the Buyyid dynasty (945–1055 CE).21
The numbers of its chapters, words, and letters are written in
circles inside a horizontal rectangular panel. Scholar of
Islamic art Yasser Tabbaa lists and illustrates other
manuscripts containing tables with verse counts.22
In the Getty Qur'an, the rectangular panel on the front of the
leaf (recto) is divided into two squares, each containing a
circle. The four sets of lines radiating into the center of
the circle intersect and form a diamond. The surface
decoration of the panel is totally overlaid with gold. The
chain-like pattern of its margins and the ornamental dots of
the background are all outlined in brown. This structure can
also be seen in certain Qur'an manuscripts copied in Abbasid
style, an example of which is a fragment including
al-ḍuḥā (Qur'an 93) to the end of the Qur'an, written
in Early Abbasid style, kept in the Chester Beatty
Library.23
The Chester Beatty manuscript includes two such illuminated
leaves at its beginning and at its end. On each of these
leaves, as was described for Getty folio 10 above, is a
rectangular panel made up of two square frames divided by four
triangles (lachak). On the other leaves of the Getty
fragments, as previously described, the text is written in
five lines in gold. Each word or letter is outlined in brown
ink to make it distinct from the background.
The harakāt, or diacritics marking short vowels, are
shown by small circular dots in red ink: for
fatḥa (ـَ), a
circular dot is inserted above the letter; for
kasra (ـِ), a dot
underneath; for ḍamma (ـُ), a dot in the left side. Nunnation (tanwīn) is
shown with two dots, one over the other. These features
correspond to the elements of style attributed to Arab
grammarian Abul Aswad al-Duʾali (d. 69 AH/688 CE), a poet and
the founder of Arabic syntax. He invented, as Egyptian
encyclopedist al-Qalqashandī informs us in 821 AH/1418 CE,
three main harakāt plus tanwīn.24
The vocalization in this copy is mainly used in the last
letter of almost all words, for it is normally the last letter
that defines a word’s function in the sentence. If no vowel
pointing is applied, misunderstanding and change in meaning
would be inevitable. This practice of using vocalization
exclusively for the last letter is attributed to al-Duʾali.
Nunnation (tanwīn) in this Qur'an is shown by two red
dots. Shadda (a diacritic for doubling a consonant)
is shown by a light-blue dot. There are no signs for
maddah (long vowel) or the hamza (glottal
stop). Because the light blue is the same one used in the
illumination, the diacritics seem to have been inserted at the
time the manuscript was being copied. But the dots in dark
blue otherwise surrounding the letters were inserted at a
later time to complete diacritics or to demonstrate other
modes of recitation (qirāʾāt) (fig. 3).
ExpandFig. 3. —Folio 4r from the fragmentary Getty Qur'an, 3rd century
AH/9th century CE, containing āyahs 6:106–7;
diacritics and vowel marks are shown by colored dots,
and medallions signify verse division.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig X 1 (3),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.Image Description
A yellowed manuscript page with five lines of golden
Arabic text outlined in brown with red, green, and blue
dots scattered among the text, accompanied by two golden
rosettes encircled in dark blue.
In his research on colored Arabic diacritics in Qur'an
manuscripts of the first Islamic centuries, which includes
analyzing information in the book
Al-Muḥkam fī Naqt al-Maṣāḥif (first half of the fifth
century AH/eleventh century CE; The precision in the dotting
of the Qur'an) by Abu ʾAmr ʿUthmān b. Saʾīd al-Dānī, historian
of Islamic art and architecture Alain Fouad George has deduced
new features of the regional methods of applying diacritics to
Qur'an texts. George summarizes his findings in a table.25
According to his table, the vocalization of early Qur'ans
copied in Iraq and Mashriq (a term designating the Arab east)
was accomplished through the use of red dots for
fatḥa, kasra, and ḍamma, two red
dots for tanwīn, a red dot for hamza, and
one dot after and above the alif for
hamza followed by madd. A comparison between
this table and the diacritics in the Getty Qur'an confirms
that the manuscript’s place of production is Iraq or the
eastern part of the Muslim world.
In the Getty Qur'an, the marker used for the ends of
individual verses is a rosette inscribed within a blue circle
with colored dots, as seen in many of the Abbasid Qur'ans,
which was assigned the code of 3.1.4 by Déroche (see
fig. 3).26
On folio 2v, the sign for the numeral five āyahs is a
medallion inserted between the words, inside of which the word
Khamsa (five) is written and encircled by pudgy
painted petals. This ornament is drawn over the last word of
the āyah and almost conforms to group 4.A.I in
Déroche’s classification.27
The sign for the numeral ten āyahs on folio 6r and 8v
greatly resembles the sign for the numeral five
āyahs; it differs in that, inside the medallion, the
āyah’s numeral is written in Abjad letters. Plus, in
the margin in front of the same line, another round medallion
is drawn containing the āyah’s number in golden
letters (fig. 4). In the leaves of the
Getty Qur'an, the signs for the numeral ten āyahs are
inserted in the margin in front of line three for
āyah 3:130 (3v), line five for āyah 6:120
(8v; see fig. 4), and line one for
āyah 6:110 (6r).
ExpandFig. 4. —Folio 8v (detail) from the fragmentary Getty Qur'an,
3rd century AH/9th century CE, containing the sign for
the numeral ten āyahs after
āyah 6:120, with letters
ق ک, and in the
medallion in the margin,
مائة عشرون (one hundred
and ten).
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig X 1 (4),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.Image Description
Detail of the bottom-right area of a yellowed manuscript
page showing two golden medallions, one nestled in the
line of golden Arabic text and whose petals are outlined
in brown and encircle a dark-blue center with golden
script, and the second in the margin whose golden petals
encircle a brown center with golden Arabic script.
In the Abjad system, a number is assigned to each letter as
its value. But the order of Abjad letters in the western part
of the Muslim world is different from their order in the
eastern part.28
Therefore, one of the main criteria for attributing a Qur'an
manuscript to the eastern or western part of the Muslim world
is to examine the Abjad letters used for counting the
āyahs, as art historian Jonathan Bloom does in
attributing the early Fatamid Kufic manuscript known as the
Blue Qur'an to the west of the Islamic world.29
The signs used for the numeral ten āyahs on the
leaves of the Getty Qur'an, however, are assigned to
āyahs 110, 120, and 130, as shown by
ق، ی,
ق، ک and
ق، ل. There is no difference
between the numeric value of these letters in the eastern and
western Abjad systems. One folio of the Qur'an under
discussion in this article in the National Library of Tunisia
(Rutbi 198)30
includes al-hajj (22:43–44, 22:63–66), which has a
sign for the sixtieth āyah written with a
س, one of the variable
numbers used in the more common, eastern system.
Throughout, Iʾjām diacritics (the dots distinguishing
the consonant pointing) are respectively shown by very thin,
oblique black lines. The signs to pause while reading
(waqf) are indicated by dots of light and dark blue
over the letters. This method has been attributed to Arabic
linguist Yahya b. Yuʾmar (d. 129 AH/756 CE) and Arab
grammarian Nasr b. ʿĀṣim (d. 89 AH/708 CE). Purportedly, the
fifth Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-malik Marwān (r. 65–86 AH/685–705
CE) and governor of Hejaz and Iraq Hajjāj b. Yūsuf-i Thaqafī
(r. 73–95 AH/692–714 CE) ordered its creation and
establishment to help distinguish between formally similar
letters.31
The handwriting of the fragmentary Qur'an manuscript is bulky.
Letters such as alif and lām are grounded on
the baseline with no deviance. Déroche classifies the one leaf
of this manuscript kept at the Khalili Collections, London,
under the subgroup D.I and provides a description of its
script.32
Its characteristics greatly resemble those of the monumental
script used for endowments, sura headings, and the beginning
notes of certain Qur'an manuscripts in New Style. The
similarities of style in these Qur'an scripts are evidence of
their production in the same geographic scope. The Qur'an
produced in Isfahan in 327 AH/939 CE (see
fig. 2) is an example. The text with
which this copy begins is part of an endowment, and the verse
count is written in Early Abbasid style. Although the quality
of the script does not show clearly due to imprecise outlining
of the words, the geometry of the letters can be mapped onto
the Déroche scripts, and the following properties can be
extracted:
returning stroke of the lower portion of the isolated
alif (الف) is
longer and tip-pointed;
medial jīm (ـجـ)
is located on the baseline and the letter preceding it is
located higher;
initial ʾayn (ع)
has a wide, generally circular opening;
medial ʾayn (ـعـ) is an inverted triangle, and the final ʾayn (ـع) has a sickle-like kern;
mīm (م) has a
short horizontal kern on the baseline;
nūn (ن), the
bowl of sīn (س),
and yā (ی) are
relatively big wide circles; and
single hā (ه) is
a semicircle relying on a vertical line.
These characteristics conform to the general attributes of
Déroche’s group D. Still, a more accurate recognition of the
style of the script is difficult because, besides the lack of
clarity, there is an in-between quality to the letters’ forms.
Most letters conform to subgroup D.I, but the curves of
letters nūn (ن),
sīn (س), and
yā (ی) are written
in the manner of subgroup D.Va, and alif (الف) in subgroup D.III.
A stronger resemblance can be seen in other Qur'an manuscripts
in New Style. An example is the beginning of the seventh
volume in a ten-volume Qur'an copied by al-ʿabbās b. Muhammad
b. al-ʿabbās al-Maṣāḥifī (the copyist of Qur'an manuscripts)
al-Qazvīnī, containing its scribe’s autograph on two pages in
Early Abbasid script. Its script mostly conforms to subgroup
D.I; only the letter hā conforms to subgroup D.III,
and the curves of letters nūn (ن), sīn (س), and
yā (ی) are written
in the manner of subgroup D.Va (fig. 5). The autograph reads as follows:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
کتب هذا الجز
و اذهبه العباس
بن محمد القزوینی
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
copied this juzʾ
and illuminated it al-Abbās
b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī
ExpandFig. 5. —Two pages of a Qur'an copied probably for the Buyyid
dynasty’s court by al-Abbās b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī, date
unknown, ink on paper, 19 × 13 cm.
Mashhad, Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 3012, fols.
1r–2v.Image Description
Double-page spread of damaged manuscript, its edges curled
with pieces missing, showing mirrored rectangular panels
with double-bordered ornamental frames: the outer border
is a golden, repeating trefoil pattern atop a red
background, while the inner comprises golden twists on a
red background. Central panels contain Arabic script on a
red background delineated through golden and brown
outline, surrounded by golden ornamentation. Medallions at
the outer margins are partially torn off.
The scribe is allegedly from Qazvīn, a city in Central Iran,
located in ʾIrāq-e ʾajam (Persian Iraq), or the mountainous
region (Jibāl) according to the ancient geographic divisions
of Iran.33
During most of the tenth century, this region was under the
rule of the Buyyid dynasty (332–447 AH/945–1055 CE). Although
the manuscript’s place of production is not noted, scholars
know that, on the basis of another colophon related to a
Qur'an copied by this scribe, he is associated with the Buyyid
dynasty’s court. He copied and illuminated the abovementioned
Qur'an manuscript between 387 and 391 AH/997 and 1000 CE for
“Umm al-Umarā’s treasury” in Rayy.34
Umm al-Umarā or Umm al-Mulūk (mother of kings) was the title
of Sayyidah Malik Khātūn or Shīrīn Dukht-i Ispahbud Rustam-i
Ṭabarī (d. 1028), the first Shi'ite woman ruler in the history
of Iran. Belonging to the Bāvandiān family of Tabaristān, she
married Fakhr al-Dawla Daylamī. Upon her husband’s death in
387 AH/997 CE, she officially became the ruler of the
mountainous region (Jibāl) of the Buyyid realm of dominion.
Her two sons—Shams al-Dawla Daylamī, governor of Hamedan (r.
387–412 AH/997–1021 CE), and Majd al-Dawla Daylamī, governor
of Rayy (387–420 AH/997–1029 CE)—were mere children when they
became governors. The forenamed scribe worked for the library
of the Buyyid’s court; the script used in copying the
manuscript is in New Style and resembles the style of the
aforementioned Qur'an manuscript produced in Isfahan in
939.35
These characteristics are also seen in the monumental script
of another copy of the Qur'an. On the basis of its resemblance
to prior manuscripts, it was most probably copied in the tenth
century in Central Iran (Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no.
5015), although it is missing the date of completion and the
scribe’s autograph. It is the fourth volume of a ten-volume
Qur'an in which the sura headings and the insertions on the
pages’ margins are written in Early Abbasid style. Its writing
and the outlining of the golden Early Abbasid are more
exacting compared to other examples. In the sura heading of
al-anʾām, the forms of letters with the vertical
tooth of medial ʾayn (ـعـ), the broad shape of mīm (م), the head of wāw (و) on the baseline, and the short arms of lā (لا) conform to subgroups D.I and D.Va (fig. 6). Some explanation about the place of the sura’s revelation
is written in the same style inside the medallion beside the
sura heading.
ExpandFig. 6. —Sura heading of al-anʾām copied in Early
Abbasid script in the Qur'an endowed to the Imam Riza
Shrine, probably 4th century AH/10th century CE,ink on paper, 13 × 18 cm. Mashhad,
Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 5015, fol. 6v.Image Description
A yellowed manuscript page showing Arabic script; the top
three and bottom four lines of script are in black ink
accompanied by larger red dots and smaller black dots,
with a green diacritic appearing in the second line from
the top, while the two lines at center are in golden ink
outlined in thin black, with an ornate, winged golden
medallion outlined in black in the left margin.
Another example of Iranian manuscripts having lines in Abbasid
style is the copy of the Qur'an written by Ahmad b. Muhammad
b. Yāsīn, dated 383 AH/993 CE (TIEM, nos. 453–56). This copy,
in four volumes, is produced in the horizontal format like the
Qur'an copied by al-ʿabbās b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī. In circles
inside the panels on its beginning pages, the numbers of its
suras, words, and letters are written in Early Abbasid style.
But, due to the script’s small size and the imprecise
outlining of words, an exact identification of its style is
not possible.
Table 1 offers a visual comparison of
the main letters of the Getty Qur'an; the main letters of the
monumental scripts of the Qur'an manuscripts written in New
Style in Central Iran; and subgroups D.I and D.Va in Déroche’s
classification. The Getty Qur'an’s script entirely conforms to
the style of the monumental script of the Qur'an manuscripts
from Central Iran. Therefore, not only does it seem possible
to attribute the production of the Getty Qur'an to Central
Iran but it is also possible to propose a strong hypothesis
attributing the mix of D.I and D.Va scripts to Central Iran.
alif
jīm / ḥā / khā
ṭā / ẓā
ayn / ghayn
qāf
mīm
nūn
hā
lā
Getty fragmentary Kufic Qur'an
Isfahan Qur'an
Abbās b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī’s Qur'an
The unknown Qur'an (Library of Astan Quds Razavi,
no. 5015)
D.I classification
D.Va classification
ExpandTable 1. —Letters in the Getty Qur'an; in the monumental script
of the Qur'an manuscripts copied in New Style; and in
François Déroche’s D.I and D.Va classification.
Summary
Efforts to recognize the place of production of the Qur'an
manuscripts in Early Abbasid script and determine the
transformation of Qur'an script styles in the first three
centuries of hijra (622–913 CE) have always yielded ambiguous
results due to the lack of reliable information. Yet, close
examination of the Qur'an manuscripts written in New Style
helps us acquire knowledge of regional styles of Qur'anic
calligraphy, at least in the eastern part of the Muslim world.
Certain Qur'an manuscripts contain inscriptions and insertions
written in Early Abbasid style; due to their greater quantity
and the intactness of their scribes’ autographs, they provide
more accurate information regarding their place of production.
Thus we have seen ample evidence that both the fragmentary
Getty Qur'an and the mix of D.I and D.Va styles can be traced
to Central Iran. In short, the evidence is as follows:
The insertion of a verse count at the beginning of the Getty
Qur'an, containing the number of chapters (suras), words,
and letters, which is also included in New Style Qur'ans
produced in Central Iran, such as the Qur'an copied in 327
AH/939 CE and the one scribed by Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Yāsīn
in 383 AH/993 CE, both produced in Isfahan.
The resemblance of the Abjad system for counting the
āyahs in the Getty Qur'an to the Abjad system
common in the eastern part of the Muslim world.
The considerable resemblance of the Getty Qur'an’s script to
the monumental script of the Qur'an manuscripts produced in
Central Iran.
The resemblance of the diacritics used in the Getty Qur'an
to the tradition of the eastern part of the Muslim world, as
found in Al-Muḥkam fī Naqt al-Maṣāḥif by Abu ʾAmr
Uthmān b. Saʾīd al-Dānī.
Mahdi Sahragard is an assistant professor in
the Department of Architecture at Islamic Azad University,
Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Notes
The author would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers
for their insightful comments and express gratitude to the
editorial team for their valuable feedback. Research for this
essay was conducted using the
Encyclopaedia of Islam transliteration system for the
Arabic and Persian terms.
Ibn al-Nadīm, Al-Fihrist [377 AH/987 CE], ed.
Muhammad Riza Tajaddud (Tehran: Zavvār, 1971), 9; and
François Déroche,
The Abbasid Tradition: Qur'ans of the 8th to the 10th
Centuries AD
(London: Nour Foundation, 1992), 12.
↩︎
Estelle Whelan, “The Phantom of Hijazi Script: A Note on
Paleographic Method” (unpublished manuscript, 1997),
referenced in Sheila S. Blair,
Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2005), 108.
↩︎
Nabia Abbott,
The Rise of the North Arabic Script and Its Kuranic
Development with a Full Description of the Kuran
Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939), 138.
↩︎
Habiballah Faẓāʾilī ,
Aṭlas-i Khaṭṭ: Tahqiq dar Khutūt-i Islamī
[Atlas of calligraphy: Research in Islamic scripts]
(Isfahan: Mashʿal, 1971), 142.
↩︎
Martin Lings and Yasin Hamid Safadi,
The Qur'ān: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Qur'ān
Manuscripts at the British Library
(London: World of Islam Publishing for the British
Library, 1976), 29–33.
↩︎
François Déroche,
Les manuscrits du coran. Aux origines de la
calligraphie coranique. Deuxieme partie: Manuscrits
musulmans,
vol. 1, Catalogue des manuscrits arabes (Paris:
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1983); and Déroche,
Abbasid Tradition.↩︎
Note, however, that the Early Abbasid style in Déroche’s
classification originally comprised seven groups.
François Déroche,
Qur'ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview
(Leiden: Brill, 2013), 8.
↩︎
The Amajur Qur'an was endowed to the mosque of Sur
(Tyre), located in modern-day Lebanon, by Amajur, the
Abassid governor of Syria from 870–78 CE. The surviving
folios of the Qur'an have been scattered all around the
world, to Istanbul, Cairo, Dublin, Cambridge, and
beyond. See Alain Fouad George, “The Geometry of the
Qur'an of Amajur: A Preliminary Study of Proportion in
Early Arabic Calligraphy,” Muqarnas, no. 20
(2003): 3.
↩︎
Allain Fouad George, “Coloured Dots and the Question of
Regional Origins in Early Qur'ans,”
Qur’anic Studies 17, no. 1 (2015): 1.
↩︎
Images of the Getty leaves are available on the website
of the J. Paul Getty Museum,
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RVE. According to Getty provenance records, this
fragmentary Qur'an was likely part of a manuscript held
by the Great Mosque of Kairouan in 1022. It is believed
to have been in the possession of Sultan Mahmud II
(1785–1839). Following his passing in 1839, the
fragments likely moved to a private collection in
Istanbul, Turkey. By 1964, the fragment was acquired by
H.P. Kraus (1907–88), a well-regarded antiquarian book
dealer. Subsequently, Kraus sold the fragments to
collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig, who held it within
their collection until the Getty Museum acquired it in
1983. Thanks to Aleia McDaniel for this provenance
description.
↩︎
For example, see an entire copy in Early Kufic style,
the beginning and ending of which conform to the fourth
juzʾ of the Qur'an, from 2:192 (Inna al-Laḑīna Kafarū wa mātū) to 4:22 (wa sāʾa sabīlā), Mashhad, Library
of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 12220, seventy-seven leaves, 8
× 12 cm. The eastern Kufic Qur'an manuscripts, with five
lines to each leaf, were in thirty volumes. The most
well known of these manuscripts is a Qur'an copy scribed
by ʿuthmān b. Husayn al-Warrāq-i al-Qaznavī, ca.
1070–74, kept in the same library in Mashhad. For more
information on this copy, see Blair,
Islamic Calligraphy, 197; and Mahdi Sahragard,
Sarţi Mastūr: Tārikh va Sabk shenāsī Kūfī Sharqī
[The script in veil: The history and stylistics of
eastern Kufic script] (Tehran: Academy of the Arts
Press, 2020), 173–85.
↩︎
Yasser Tabbaa, “The Transformation of Arabic Writing:
Part I, Qur'ānic Calligraphy,”
Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 129.
↩︎
David James has discussed this Qur'an in detail. David
James, Qur'ans of the Mamluks (London:
Alexandria, 1988), 24.
↩︎
Prior to the discovery of this volume, the manuscript
copied in 361 AH/971 CE by ʿAlī b. Shādhān al-Rāzī
(Istanbul University Library A. 6758) had been known as
the oldest. See Jonathan M. Bloom, “Silk Road or Paper
Road?,” The Silk Road 3, no. 2 (2005),
www.silkroad/newsletter/vol3num2/5_Bloom.php.
↩︎
See Sahragard, Saţr-i Mastūr, 128–33; and Mahdi
Sahragard, “Revived Leaves: The Qur'an Endowed by
Kashwād b. Amlās (A Manuscript on Paper from Iṣfahān,
Dated Ramaḍān 327/939),” Journal ofIslamic Manuscripts, no. 14 (2023): 212–34.
↩︎
The Qur'an was transferred from ʾAlā al-Dīn Kay Qubād’s
shrine in Konya to Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi (TIEM;
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum) in Istanbul in 1913.
For more information, see Massumeh Farahad and Simon
Rettig,
The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of
Islamic and Turkish Arts
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 2016), 160.
↩︎
See Tabbaa, “Transformation of Arabic Writing,” 126–31.
↩︎
Eleven folios from a Qur'an, ninth century CE, 12.8 ×
20.2 cm, ten lines to each page, CBL, Is 1411, fol. 1b.,
https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/Is_1411/13/. See Arthur J. Arberry,
The Koran Illuminated:A Handlist of the Korans in the Chester Beatty
Library
(Dublin: Hodges, Figgis and Co., 1967), 6, no. 10, pl.
18. Ten other leaves of this manuscript are kept in the
Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi (TIEM 552).
↩︎
Jonathan Bloom, “The Blue Koran: An Early Fatimid Kufic
Manuscript from the Maghrib,” in
Les Manuscrits du Moyen-Orient: Essais de
codicologies et de paléographie, ed. François Déroche (Istanbul: Institut Français
d’Études Anatoliennes d’Istanbul, 1989), 97.
↩︎
De Carthage à Kairouan: 2000 ans d’art et d’histoire
en Tunisie
(Paris: Association Française d’Action Artistique,
1983), 262. The illustration of the folio found in the
library in Tunisia was provided to the author as part of
the information in the files of the Department of
Manuscripts, J. Paul Getty Museum, compiled from notes
by Nabil Saidi, Dagmar Riedel, Bryan Keene, Morgan
Conger, and Elizabeth Morrison.
↩︎
ʾuthman b. Saʾīd al-Dāni,
al-Muqnaʾ fi maʾrefat rasm masāhif ahl al-amṣār maʾa
kitāb al-naqţ
(Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1983), 124.
↩︎
Ramezanali Shakeri, Ganj-i Hizār Sāli (The
thousand-year treasure) (Mashhad: Astan Quds Razavi,
1988), 65. See Mahdi Sahragard, “Sabk Shināsī Mantaqi-ī
Kūfī Sharqī: Ṣifāt-i qalami Kūfī dar Qur'an-i Tāzi-yāb-i
Rayy" (Regional Stylistic Features of Eastern Kufic
Script: Analyzing the Characteristics in a Recently
Discovered Qur'an from Rayy), Golestān-e Honar,
23 (1401/2022): 44–58. The colophon is as follows:
"فرغ من تذهیبه العباس بن محمد بن العباس │ فی صفر من شهور
سنه احدی تسعین و ثلثمائه │ کتبه العباس بن محمد بن
العباس│ المصاحفی القزوینی بالری │ لخزانة السیده ام
امیرالامرا اطال│ الله مدتهما فی سنه تسع و ثمانین و
ثلثمائه."
Fig. 1. —Illuminated panel on folio 10r of the fragmentary Getty
Qur'an, 3rd century AH/9th century CE, containing the verse
count plus the number of words, letters, and diacritical
points.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, no. Ms. Ludwig X 1 (2),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.
Fig. 2. —Double-page spread from a Qur'an produced in Isfahan, 327
AH/939 CE, containing the verse count plus the number of
words, letters, and diacritical points;
ink on paper, each folio: 9 × 11 cm. Mashhad, Library of Astan
Quds Razavi, no. 3013, fols. 1v–2r.
Fig. 3. —Folio 4r from the fragmentary Getty Qur'an, 3rd century
AH/9th century CE, containing āyahs 6:106–7;
diacritics and vowel marks are shown by colored dots, and
medallions signify verse division.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig X 1 (3),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.
Fig. 4. —Folio 8v (detail) from the fragmentary Getty Qur'an, 3rd
century AH/9th century CE, containing the sign for the
numeral ten āyahs after āyah 6:120, with
letters ق ک, and in the
medallion in the margin,
مائة عشرون (one hundred and
ten).
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig X 1 (4),
83.MM.118. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content
Program.
Fig. 5. —Two pages of a Qur'an copied probably for the Buyyid
dynasty’s court by al-Abbās b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī, date
unknown, ink on paper, 19 × 13 cm.
Mashhad, Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 3012, fols. 1r–2v.
Fig. 6. —Sura heading of al-anʾām copied in Early Abbasid
script in the Qur'an endowed to the Imam Riza Shrine,
probably 4th century AH/10th century CE,ink on paper, 13 × 18 cm. Mashhad, Library of
Astan Quds Razavi, no. 5015, fol. 6v.
alif
jīm / ḥā / khā
ṭā / ẓā
ayn / ghayn
qāf
mīm
nūn
hā
lā
Getty fragmentary Kufic Qur'an
Isfahan Qur'an
Abbās b. Muhammad al-Qazvīnī’s Qur'an
The unknown Qur'an (Library of Astan Quds Razavi,
no. 5015)
D.I classification
D.Va classification
Table 1. —Letters in the Getty Qur'an; in the monumental script of
the Qur'an manuscripts copied in New Style; and in François
Déroche’s D.I and D.Va classification.