The Andalusian "Pink Qur'an" (13th century)

The "Pink Qur'an" is a manuscript attributed to early thirteenth-century Spain, named for the pinkish hue of its paper; The Met holds a bifolium from it. ¹

Each folio holds five lines from Surat al-A'raf in bold maghribi in dark brown ink, with gold diacritics and vowels outlined in brown, blue and green; blue verse numbers outlined in white sit in gold disks, and the prostration mark is a gold teardrop. The numbers are abjad letters. The word hubus, "pious foundation", is pricked with a needle in the upper corners. The fine calligraphy, lavish gold and illumination suggest a royal or noble patron in Granada or Valencia. ¹

The bifolium is rectangular rather than square, the usual format for Qur'ans of the period in Spain and North Africa, and it is on paper, not the parchment that the region kept using into the fourteenth century. The paper is believed to come from Jativa, about thirty-five miles southwest of Valencia, hence the Arabic name "Shatibi paper"; the author notes that the town was reportedly the site of the earliest paper mill in Spain. ¹