Eastern Africa & Indian Ocean – Items
Codex, Pate Island (?), undated, Naskh with Thuluth elements
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Cite
APA
Zulfikar Hirji, . (n.d.). Codex, Pate Island (?), undated, Naskh with Thuluth elements (1–), CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3844
Chicago
Zulfikar Hirji. n.d. “Codex, Pate Island (?), undated, Naskh with Thuluth elements.”, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3844
MLA
Zulfikar Hirji. Codex, Pate Island (?), Undated, Naskh With Thuluth Elements, CallFront, accessed July 26, 2026, https://callfront.inha.fr/s/callfront/item/3844
Item descriptor
- Copyrights Holder
- CallFront
- License
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Entry ID
- Kenya_ZH_05
- Author
- Zulfikar Hirji
- Contributor(s)
- Nuria Garcia Masip
- Date
- 1163 – 1267 H.
- 1749 – 1850
- Localization Exactitude Degree
- Exact
- Place of Production
- Kenya, Lamu Archipelago, Pate Island (?)
- Present Location
- Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA. Ms. FMCH90.1840AB
- Language
- Arabic
- Type of text
- Quran
- Remarks (General Identification)
- Single volume. Complete Quran with supplementary sections containing prayers.
- Type of Object
- manuscript\codex
- Size (of the object)
- 26.42 x 20.66 cm
- Ruling (Manuscript)
- 13 lines
- Technique
- written
- Remarks (Support)
- Leather binding - blind-embossed/punched. Possibly original. Restored.
- Bibliography
- Hirji, Zulfikar. “‘A Qur’an Manuscript from Coastal East Africa.” Smarthistory, 2023. https://smarthistory.org/quran-manuscript-coastal-east-africa/.
Script descriptor
See the lexicon
General Script Characteristics
- Character Spacing
- regular spaces between characters
- Presence of Elongation
- occasional
- Elongated Letters
- nūn, sīn/shīn, sād/ḍād, yā’, lām and qāf bowl
- Length of Elongation
- varied length of elongations
- Ligature
- Abusive - rā' and hā' / tāʾ marbūṭa
- Abusive - wāw and hā' / tāʾ marbūṭa
- Conventional - curvilinear
- Shading / Contrast
- medium contrast
Letter Morphology
- Point
- inclined partial square
Ascenders
- Alif Ascenders
- alif - non serifed
Descenders
- rā' zā' descenders
- rā'/zā' - long curvilinear tail
- rā'/zā' - s-shaped
- rā'/zā' - long flattened, tapered tail
- mīm descenders
- mīm - vertical downstroke
- nūn sīn shīn sādḍād yā’ lām and qāf descenders
- elongated curvilinear deep bowl
- nūn, sīn/shīn, sād/ḍād, yā', lām, qāf - crescent bowl
- yā’ al-rāji’ah descenders
- backward horizontal stroke below baseline
horizontals
denticles
- sīn shīn denticles
- short pointed denticles
- initial and medial bāʾ tāʾthāʾ nūn yāʾ denticles
- initial perpendicular to baseline
- medial short rounded denticles
- leftward stroke with short hook
counters
- hā' counters
- isolated one-eyed round (mu'arrāh)
- isolated one-eyed triangular (murabba'ah)
- initial / medial double eyed (wajh al-hirr)
- initial / medial double-eyed top and bottom (mulawwazah)
- initial / medial bottom v-shaped
- final one-eyed (mardufah) inclined to left
- final s-shaped (muḥdawdibah)
- final multi-knotted form (musalsalah)
- fā' qāf wāw counters
- soft triangular head
- medial 'ain ghayn counters
- compact inverted triangle / open or closed eye
- mīm counters
- circular head
vocalization and diacritics
- fatḥa kasra vocalization and diacritics colour
- black
- ḍamma vocalization and diacritics colour
- black
- hamza vocalization and diacritics
- small ‘ain
- hamza vocalization and diacritics colour
- black
- sukūn vocalization and diacritics
- circle
- shadda vocalization and diacritics
- short denticles
Other
- additional characteristics
- Final dāl / dhāl crescent tail
- Final dhāl with point inside tail
- Angular lām-alif with parallel shafts
- Certain words such as “Allah”, “allahumma” or “Muhammad” are consistently written in red ink
- Certain letters such as the loop for jīm /khā’/hā’ , the head of ‘ain and multi knotted hā’ are filled in red