Folio from a Qur'an in gold Kufic Script

This folio belongs to the famous Blue Qur’an. Scholars have dated it to the end of the 2nd-middle of the 4th century AH (9th to middle of the 10th century CE) and attributed it to Qairouan (Tunisia) or Umayyad Spain.
This page shows fifteen lines of text in Kufic script and a large rosette in now oxidised silver at the top right. It marks major text divisions. The other side shows only traces of faded writing. The calligrapher gave the Kufic script a severe and controlled elegance by balancing between short and elongated letters.
The Blue Qur’an is considered one of the most luxurious surviving early Qur’an manuscripts. It pairs gold calligraphy against a deep indigo background on vellum. Scholars suggest the use of gold on blue dye may have been inspired by Byzantine manuscripts. Comparisons with early medieval manuscripts from Iberia, such as Bibles, and later Syriac examples have also been drawn to suggest other possible models. The original manuscript likely had about 600 folios. Today, only 100 survive.