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Lot Essay
This folio almost certainly comes from a manuscript which was endowed to the Aghlabid Mosque of Kairouan by the Zirid Prince, al-Mu'izz ibn Badis. The gift can be dated quite precisely since the original deed survives, and refers to the prince's enmity with the Fatimids (Rutbi58; Mourad Rammah "Page from a Qur’an" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2025). Though the Zirids began as client rulers of the Fatimid caliphs, relations became increasingly strained until the year 1045 when al-Mu'izz officially broke with Cairo and recognised the sovereignty of the Abbasids in Baghdad. The retaliatory invasion of the Banu Hilal ushered in the dynasty's decline, which was hastened by the death of al-Mu'izz in 1062.
The manuscript is written in a powerful script which Déroche classifies as D.II. He identifies the script on a limited number of manuscripts found in Cairo and Kairouan, and associates it stylistically to the 9th century 'or slightly later' (Francois Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Oxford, 1993, p.37). Interestingly, Déroche also records a juz' in the Khalili collection, also richly illuminated and also written in D.II, which bears a note saying that it was once property of a certain Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad al-Mansuri al-Husayni (Déroche, no.24, p.73). A connection with the Zirid ruler, who had been born in al-Mansuriyya, can thus also be posited for this manuscript, suggesting a particular association of this script with the manuscript tradition of Kairouan.
Much of the manuscript from which this come is in the Raqqada Art Museum, Kairouan, to where it was transferred in 1983. Other folios from the manuscript have been sold in these Rooms, 13 October 1988, lot 10; 6 October 2011, lot 23; and 1 May 2025, lot 6.
The manuscript is written in a powerful script which Déroche classifies as D.II. He identifies the script on a limited number of manuscripts found in Cairo and Kairouan, and associates it stylistically to the 9th century 'or slightly later' (Francois Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition, Oxford, 1993, p.37). Interestingly, Déroche also records a juz' in the Khalili collection, also richly illuminated and also written in D.II, which bears a note saying that it was once property of a certain Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad al-Mansuri al-Husayni (Déroche, no.24, p.73). A connection with the Zirid ruler, who had been born in al-Mansuriyya, can thus also be posited for this manuscript, suggesting a particular association of this script with the manuscript tradition of Kairouan.
Much of the manuscript from which this come is in the Raqqada Art Museum, Kairouan, to where it was transferred in 1983. Other folios from the manuscript have been sold in these Rooms, 13 October 1988, lot 10; 6 October 2011, lot 23; and 1 May 2025, lot 6.