Folio of a Qur'an in kufic script

The transitional period between the end of the Umayyad caliphate and the rise of the Abbasid power was a key moment for the production of Qur’ans and the development of the arts of the book across the Islamic world. With its carefully executed calligraphic text and strongly angular kufic script, this fragment well illustrates the changes in workflow among scribes from the end of the 2nd century AH/9th CE century onwards. The extreme and precise stretching (mashq) of certain letters (up to 17.5 cm) indicates that the copyist took a substantial amount of time to complete each trait and word. The gold illuminated sura heading shows a medallion of delicate swirling branches with an almost embossed, tri-dimensional effect.