farfel_n06_013_404

404
L.A. Bookfair
Dawson
Feb. '94
$75.00

MSS Koran on paper - Arabic
Turkey - about 1800 Ottoman Calligrapher.

13 lines to the page; first, 7th + last line written in
a bold blue or gold thuluth script with the remaining
text written in a smaller haskhi script in black
Gold disis between verses. Margin ruled in colors
and gold. Circular illuminated devices in margins.
Sura heading in white on finely illuminated
panel 21 x 32 cm.
end of Surah 20 Ta Ha, beginning of Surah 21 AI Anbiya (The Prophets)

The invocation - 'In the Name of God, the Compassionate,
the Merciful' - known as the Basmalch, is used before
chapter openings throughout the Qur'an.

Thuluth was was 1st formulated in the 7th C during the Umayyad
caliphate but did not develop fully until the late 9th C.
The name means 'a third' - whether because of the
proportion of straight lines to curves, or because of the script
was 1/3 the size of another popular contemporary script,
the Tumar is not known. Though really used for copying
Qur'ans, Thuluth has enjoyed enormous popularity as an
ornamental script for calligraphic inscriptions, titles,
headings + colophons. It is still counted as the most
important of all the ornamental scripts.

To the classic Arab method, European paper makers
introduced metal wine molds with a frame called a deckle,
and the use of watermarks (1st used at Fabriano).
Linen rags provided the raw material.