by Christophe Provot
Mesopotamia, late Umayyad period, c. 750, monumental Quran leaf on parchment, sepia ink on parchment, 42.5 x 58.5 cm/16.73 x 23.03 in. Result: €837,545
The late 15th-century two-volume Quran is presumably from the India of the sultans. The monumental leaf on parchment sparked a fierce bidding war culminating in €837,545 and setting a world record for a page from a Kufic Quran, says department head Anne-Sophie Joncoux Pilorget. Originally from Mesopotamia, it is dated to about 750, during the late Umayyad Caliphate. This was corroborated by a Carbon-14 test conducted in November 2021, which dated the work to the period 694-778. Click here to read more
