Page of a Quran in Kufic Script

end of 9th century

The oblong “Italian” format was the norm in the Muslim West in the 9th and 10th centuries. Drawing on the Syriac and Byzantine traditions, it adapted to the use of mashq calligraphy, the horizontal stretching of letters characteristic of kufic script in the Abbasid period. Red dots are used to indicate vocalisation. The title of the surah is inscribed in a cartouche followed by a palmette, a motif associated with the cosmic tree, the symbol of the “good word” in the Quran (14: 24–26).