Blue Qur'an

The Blue Qur'an is an illuminated manuscript of the Islamic scripture written in gold Kufic script on parchment dyed a deep indigo blue, its exact date and place of origin uncertain and long debated by scholars, with proposals ranging across the eighth to tenth centuries and locating its production variously under Abbasid, Fatimid, Umayyad, Aghlabid or Kalbid patronage in either the Islamic West or the Middle East. Unusually large and horizontal in format, the manuscript originally comprised an estimated six hundred folios, of which roughly one hundred survive today, dispersed among institutions including the Raqqada National Museum of Islamic Art in Tunisia, which holds the largest single group, alongside museums and private collections in Europe, the Middle East and the United States. It is regarded as one of the most luxurious and technically accomplished works of early Islamic calligraphy and manuscript art to survive.