Christie’s auctions manuscript for £596,790

London: Christie’s sold the palimpsest of a Quran copied on to a Christian text for £596,790 during the ongoing Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets auction.
Lot 1 of the sale was a remarkable manuscript dating to the earliest period of Islam. The leaves from these folios derive from an earlier Coptic manuscript containing passages from the Book of Deuteronomy, which is part of the Torah and the Christian Old Testament. It was probably produced in Egypt, home to the Coptic community, at the time of the Arab conquest, the auction house said. This appears to be the only recorded example of a Quran written above a Christian text, and as such was an invaluable piece from the earliest centuries of Islam. Christie’s is honoured to have offered it at auction in London, the auction house said.
French scholar Dr. Eléonore Cellard helped with this remarkable discovery, as the folios are, in fact, a palimpsest -- a manuscript from which the first writing has been effaced so that the vellum could be reused.
Beneath the Arabic script an original Coptic text may clearly be seen.