Opening Folio of a Qur'an

Under the ‘Abbasid caliphate, illumination became an increasingly important feature of Qur’an manuscripts and luxurious copies would have displayed richly illuminated opening and closing pages. This illuminated opening page offers a glimpse into the level of sophistication that illuminators reached during the early ‘Abbasid period. Both sides of this parchment are occupied by beautifully complex central panels: a field of delicate leaves (now almost faded) in a punctuated diamond-shape lattice motif realised with a hard point on one side, and an intricate motive of interwoven bands of strapwork on the other. Large marginal medallions with hatching details complete this rich decoration. Pigments have discretely been used to accentuate the delicate and complex decorative structure.
Considering the remarkable quality of the illumination and its large scale, this folio must have once belonged to a magnificent Qur'an manuscript, most probably divided into multiple volumes. Similar other examples that can be related to this folios are preserved in Tunis at the National Library, at the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art in Qayrawan, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, and the Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C., as well as in private collections.