Folio from a Quran Manuscript ca. 1180

Folio from a Qur’an Manuscript ca. 1180
Written in Eastern or new style kufic script , line two of this folio includes two long, vertical letters (alif and lam), forming a distinctive pointed oval-shaped pattern. The elaborate treatment of the background, entirely filled with vegetal scrolls terminating in large blossoms so that the script seems to stand out against the decorative background. The script and illumination are related to a Qur’an in the Topkapi Saray Museum, dated 573/1177–78, epigraphic inscriptions on architecture and luster ceramics of this period, suggesting a unity of style in Seljuk art of eleventh and twelfth century Iran and Iraq.