LONDON, Oct 24: A copy of the holy Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, has fetched more than one million pounds in London.
The holy book, which had been estimated to fetch up to 350,000 pounds, realised 1,140,500 pounds, Christie’s said on Tuesday.
That was a world record for the holy book or any type of Islamic manuscript, Christie’s said.
A nearly complete, 10th-century kufic Quran, thought to be from North Africa or the near East, fetched 916,500 pounds.
The record-setting Quran was signed by Yahya bin Muhammad ibn ‘Umar, dated 17 Ramadan, 599 Hijrah (June 1203).
It was acquired in Cairo in 1905 by Archer Milton Huntington, who founded the Hispanic Society in New York City in 1904. Huntington, the adopted son of railroad and ship-building magnate Collis P. Huntington, died in 1955.
The calligraphy in the manuscript was done in gold outlined in thin black lines, and the marginal notes are in silver outlined in red.
The kufic Quran bridges a gap between the earlier style, copied on parchment of horizontal format, and the later style of vertical composition, often on paper, Christie’s catalogue said.
The kufic script takes its name from Kufah in Iraq, an early centre of Islamic scholarship.Because the script’s vertical strokes were very short but the horizontal strokes elongated, it was written on papers in a landscape format.—AP
