A leaf from a dispersed Qur'an written on pink paper
Andalusia, late 12th-13th Century
Arabic manuscript on paper, five lines of text written in large maghribi script in black ink with diacritics in gold, shadda and sukun in cobalt blue, hamza marked by yellow dots, gold and polychrome roundel verse markers, waqf symbol pricked out in upper left corner
315 x 245 mm.
Footnotes:
At this date in Andalusia the use of paper was becoming less unusual, certainly more common than in North Africa, where vellum remained more typical. The use of pink paper (which may have been produced at Jativa, near Valencia, site of the earliest recorded paper mill in Spain) marks out the manuscript from which this leave derives as especially high quality.

A section comprising 205 folios from this manuscript was sold at the Hotel George V, Paris, 30 October 1975, lot 488, and subsequently appeared at Sotheby's, 14 April 1976, lot 247. Single leaves, or groups of leaves, from the manuscript appear quite regularly at auction: see for instance, a section of thirteen leaves, Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 26th October 2023, lot 48; Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic Worlds and India, 27th October 2020, lot 402 (seven leaves).