Researchers uncover hidden Verses in the Blue Qur'an using Advanced Imaging Techniques

The Blue Qur’an is a copy of the Qur’an dating from 800-900 CE. The manuscript is known for its distinctive vivid blue or indigo pages, silver decoration and gold Kufic calligraphy. The text is written in Kufic script, which is considered difficult to read by people today because it uses Arabic letters without dots or vowel signs. It originally comprised 600 sheets, each made from sheepskin. Since the 1900s, scholars have put forward North Africa, Iraq and Andalusia as potential production places. Today, only around 100 pages are to be found in private and museum collections around the world, five of which will be displayed at Zayed National Museum. 

The page was examined using multispectral imaging, a technique which can reveal text and images that have faded over time and are no longer visible to the human eye. The decoration in this case may have been added in order to rectify a calligrapher’s personal error - possibly duplicating the text of a page of the holy script. The manuscript’s production methods would have been too expensive to warrant starting again on a new indigo-dyed sheepskin sheet, so intricate patterns were used to cover the text. These actions resulting from decisions made by calligraphers is an aspect of manuscript production which has never been highlighted for the Blue Qur’an before, and is exceedingly rarely seen in Islamic manuscripts of this age. 

This page of the Blue Qur’an will be displayed in Zayed National Museum’s Through Our Connections gallery. The gallery showcases the broadening horizons of the people of the ancient emirates and the impact of new technologies, materials and knowledge, the spread of Islam, and culminates in the development of the Arabic language. The country’s soon-to-open national museum celebrates the rich history, culture and stories of the United Arab Emirates and its founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, whose enduring example still guides the nation and its people today. 

Mai Al Mansouri, Associate Curator, Zayed National Museum, said: “Zayed National Museum’s groundbreaking research on the Blue Qur’an sheds new light on the origins and production of this important manuscript and underlines the role of the museum in the cultural and academic life of the UAE and beyond. The Museum’s research programmes are an important part of its mission to expand its understanding of the past, people, and cultures. The discoveries our teams are making about the heritage of the United Arab Emirates and the broader region are profoundly significant to developing our understanding of how ideas spread across cultures, highlighting its historical role as a centre for communication and cultural exchange, and illustrating its contribution to the flow of ideas, art and knowledge between civilisations.”

Nurul Iman Bint Rusli, Curator, Zayed National Museum, said: “Only one copy of the Blue Qur’an is thought to exist and the 100 or so of its known pages have fascinated scholars for many decades. The advanced technology used to shed new light on this page of the manuscript is helping to provide additional perspectives on the production of this rare copy of the Qur’an. It is an honour to be part of this important research on one of the world’s most important manuscripts at Zayed National Museum.”