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Qurʼanic Verses

This Qurʼanic fragment includes verses 85–88 of the third surah (chapter) of the Qurʼan, Al 'Imran (The family of 'Imran). The verses continue on the fragment’s verso. In this surah, all people are invited to accept Islam, while Muslims are encouraged to seek friendship and security within their communities. Between each horizontal line of Arabic text are diagonal word-by-word translations into Persian. Unlike similar interlinear Qurʼans that include a Persian translation in red ink, this fragment makes no color differentiation between the Arabic original and its Persian rendition. The fragment follows the pattern set by Persian Qurʼans produced during the Ilkhanid period, suggesting that it dates from the 14th century and probably was made in Iran. Later interlinear Persian Qurʼans tend to translate the Arabic text continuously (not word-by-word) in a horizontal (not diagonal) written space. The script used for the Arabic text is tawqi', while the Persian translations are written in a Persian naskh. Tawqi' is similar to thuluth but smaller and with systematic assimilations between letters ordinarily not joined. In the middle of the right margin appears a juz' (section) marker made of a gold central flower, a blue concentric circle, and a circle of radiating gold lines. In the upper left margin appears a juz' shaped like a hanging lamp. All diacritical marks are executed in black ink except for the sukun (showing lack of a vowel), which sometimes appears as a small hollow red circle.