Folio from a Qur'an in gold kufic script

During the first centuries of the 'Abbasid caliphate, the use of decorative devices and illumination on Qur'anic pages progressively increased and manuscripts begun to be populated with illuminated sura headings, medallions, verse markers, richly illuminated opening and closing pages. The most lavish decoration of all was the complete transcription of the Qur'anic text using gold and this folio originally belonged to one of the very few Qur'an manuscripts which were entirely copied by using gold ink (chrysography, lit. golden writing). Written using the kufic script typical of the first centuries of the 'Abbasid period, the complete manuscript was most probably divided into several volumes. The composition of this Qur'an must have been lengthy and laborious, chrysography being a technique that requires different stages of work, hence the rarity of such manuscript exemplars. The extensive use of precious material indicates that this was most likely a commission for a very high-profile, perhaps even royal, patron. Several pages from this manuscript are nowadays dispersed among several public and private collections of Islamic Art.