Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Record price for 13th-century Quran


AP Photo: This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_re_eu/quran_sale

Record price for 13th-century Quran:

This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran which has sold for a world record at the London auction house Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007. The religious artefact went under the hammer for 1,140,500 pounds ($US 2,321,770) - the highest amount paid for an Islamic holy book. Written in 1203, the tome is the earliest-known complete, dated Quran, transcribed in gold and was part of a sale of art from the Islamic and Indian World. (AP Photo / Christie's,ho)

AP Photo: This is an undated photo released by Christie's auctioneers of a 13th century Quran... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_on_re_eu/quran_sale



LONDON - A Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, has sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction.

Both were offered for sale by the Hispanic Society of America, and were purchased by trade buyers in London, Christie's said.

The record-setting Quran was signed by Yahya bin Muhammad ibn 'Umar, dated 17 Ramadan 599 (June 1203).

It was acquired in Cairo in 1905 by Archer Milton Huntington, who founded the Hispanic Society in New York City in 1904. Huntington, the adopted son of railroad and ship-building magnate Collis P. Huntington, died in 1955.

The calligraphy in the manuscript was done in gold outlined in thin black lines, and the marginal notes are in silver outlined in red.

The kufic Quran bridges a gap between the earlier style, copied on parchment of horizontal format, and the later style of vertical composition, often on paper, Christie's catalog said.

The kufic script takes its name from Kufah in Iraq, an early center of Islamic scholarship, according to the British Library.

Because the script's vertical strokes were very short but the horizontal strokes elongated, it was written on papers in a landscape format.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.

Here is my blog: bengali bridal makeup

Anonymous said...

This blog was... how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I've found something that helped me. Thanks a lot!

my web blog; holiday email templates

Blog Archive

israeli gunman

israeli gunman
palestinian in class at the check point

Israeli gunman

Israeli gunman
palestinian children

Musician!

Musician!
My heart will go on

Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, Pakistan

Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, Pakistan
LAHORE - March 24, 2006: No way-out to avoid a traffic jam near Urdu Bazaar. — Dawn

poor animal!

poor animal!
MULTAN - March 24, 2006: A camel performance at the spring festival organised by the City District Government to mark the Pakistan Day

beast of burden

beast of burden
LAHORE - March 20: BEAST OF BURDEN: A damaged vehicle being taken to a workshop.—APP

Communing with pigeons

Communing with pigeons
KARACHI - March 20: A child enjoys the company of pigeons, whom he feeds, at Hyderi on Tuesday.—APP

Waiting for drinking water

Waiting for drinking water
HYDERABAD (India) - March 20: People stand in a line as they wait to fill containers with drinking water supplied by a mobile water vehicle in a slum area in the Saidabad colony here on Tuesday. More than 500 families living in this slum area depend on water supplied by a mobile vehicle and provided by the Metro water works once in three days. 'Coping with Water Scarcity' is the theme for the World Water Day 2007, which is celebrated each year on March 22.—AFP

Mud slide in Kashmir

Mud slide in Kashmir
BAGH - March 20: A man marooned in an area of Azad Kashmir affected by hill torrents following heavy downpour over the past few days is being rescued by local people on Tuesday.—AFP

Palestinians

Palestinians
BETHLEHEM - March 22: Palestinian students wear traditional clothing during a cultural event taking place at the Bethlehem University here on Thursday. The event, which included a mock wedding, is to promote the education of traditional ideals of Palestinian culture.�AFP

The World Water Day,

The World Water Day,
HYDERABAD - March 22: Peasant women make their way to a distant place in order to fetch water. The World Water Day, being observed on Friday, is intended to highlight the need for reducing wastage of this precious commodity. � Photo by Yousuf Nagori