A manuscript copy of the Koran, written probably in the twelfth century in eastern Iran in a rather simple, late Kufic hand, has one notable peculiarity: the whole of Sura 112, the profession of God’s Unity, is written in unusually interlaced, powerful letters, and on another page, the word Muhammad rasul Allah, “Muhammad is the messenger of God”, are likewise distinguished by their eye-catching calligraphic form from the rest of page. The unknown scribe has expressed, in a...
