Page of the Quran

This page is from a Quran copied on parchment that was a testamentary gift for the benefit of the Great Mosque of Kairouan made by Umran ibn Ahmed ibn Umran al-Balawî in 1022, according to an act authenticated by Kairouan cadi (judge) Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Hachim.

The collection of Qurans that belonged to the Great Mosque of Kairouan was transferred in 1967 to the National Library of Tunis. It was conserved there for 16 years before being transferred in 1983 to the Musée Islamique de Raqqada.

The text is written in black and golden kufic script. The vowels are indicated by red dots, in keeping with the style of Abi-Al-Aswad al-Du'ali. Other diacritic dots are used as orthographic symbols. The verses are separated by a large gold and brown rosette with six petals. Other verse endings are not marked. This single rosette appears as being part of the title of the sura and of the ornamentation of the margin. The title consists of one line of ornamented kufic writing, extending into the margin by a large round medallion containing a star-shaped hexagon of gold on a brown background, highlighted by two golden circles. Note the beautiful contour of the star, the lines of which are delicately intertwined. This way, floral and geometric motifs combine to produce a most appropriate stellar ornamentation for the sura title and text. On either side of this medallion are positioned two stylised lotus buds, in gold, brown and green.

The kufic script used was widely in fashion throughout the Islamic world from the first centuries of Islam. Its use gave rise to an "imperial style", attested from Andalusia to Central Asia.

The geometric and botanical ornamentations are identical to those found in the Qurans conserved at the National Library of Sana'a in Yemen, which were found in the roof space of the Great Mosque of this city, or even in Egyptian Qurans conserved at the National Library of Cairo.

The Museum of Kairouan has more than three hundred pages from the same Quran. Similar Qurans, which were recovered in several Arabic countries during the Ottoman occupation, are currently conserved in Istanbul, at the Museum of  Turkish and Islamic Arts. Furthermore, the diacritic symbols, indicated by either red dots according to the Iraqi method or green dots in keeping with the Andalus school, attest of the central role of the city of Kairouan in the Muslim Occident, where the various artistic currents of the Islamic world would meet. Making testamentary gifts of Qurans and books on theology, for the benefit of mosques, was an ancient practice, disseminated in Islamic lands since the first century of the Hegira calendar. The collection of Qurans of the ancient library of the Great Mosque of Kairouan contains one of the rare known examples, and attests that the city was a major centre of book production.