Rare Quran page fetches $500,000 at an auction

A rare page from the only two known Kufic Quran copies fetched half a million dollars at British auction house Christie’s.

A rare page from the only two known Kufic Quran copies fetched half a million dollars at British auction house Christie’s.

According to Egypt’s Yam al-Sabi newspaper, the page contains verses of Surah Al Imran, the third Surah (chapter) of the Holy Quran.

The distinctive artefact features gold calligraphy on blue vellum and was “undertaken in the 9th century, most probably in Tunisia for a patron of considerable wealth and ambition”, said the firm that put the item up for bidding in London.

Earlier, Sara Plumbly, head of the Islamic Department at Christie’s, said that the piece was from “some of the earliest Qurans — from some of the most important private manuscripts”.

According to research, the inventory of the library of the Great Mosque of Qairawan mentions manuscripts copied in gold on black-blue-dyed vellum.