Written in a horizontal format in an early bold Kufic-Abbasid script, this particular page features parts of verses 85 to 88 of the book Surat al-Anbiya (The Prophets). This horizontal format allows greater movement across the page to what might otherwise have been a static-looking script. Qur'ans in the early centuries of Islam were written using a group of angular scripts labelled as Kufic. This term, derived from the Arabic word 'kufi', refers to the script that developed in Kufah, an early literary centre in Iraq. Since the origin of the Kufic script is unknown, the term 'Abbasid' is used as a replacement, the name of the ruling dynasty during which most Qur'ans were written with such angular scripts. Hence the term Kufic-Abbasid is used to describe this type of script.
