The 'West African' copy of the Qur'ān

fol. 332 (163 bifolios, 6 folios); 220-230 x 160-167.5mm; written area 150-160 x 100-ll0mm; 16-20 lines per page; laid paper; bold Ifrīqī hand in shiny black ink, with diacritics in black, vocalisation in red, and hamzat al-qaţ' in yellow; sūra-titles in the same hand but in red, with diacritics and vocalisation in black; marginal decorations in red, brown, yellow and black; 4 larger decorations in 'earthy' yellow, reddish brown and black (ff. lb, 8lb, 163a, 246a); strong, leather-loose cover binding, stained reddish brown, with dark brown (almost black) associated with the tooling, ending in an envelope-flap and strap for fastening; the whole contained in a rigid suede-leather satchel, with a triple flap, thongs and straps; no date.

The manuscript contains the tre lune watermark, which actually appears in different variations, one reason for which may be twin moulds for papermaking. Another reason may be movement of the watermark along the mould; the wire forming the watermark seems to be attached to the mould improperly - some pages have the largest crescent rotated with a large degree.

The countermark used is the letter pair 'C L', with two variations, which proves that twin moulds were used in papermaking. Part of the manuscript also has the tre lune with human faces (three moonfaces) watermark with the 'Andrea Galvani Pordenone' countermark.

The manuscript is not dated, but with the help of watermarks and countermarks, the manuscript is estimated to have been written mid 19th century, between 1836-80, because the countermark corresponds to the Venetian Andrea Galvani firm, providing 1836 as the earliest papermaking date. Such paper was used in Egypt and western Sudan until 1880. Brockett suggested that the manuscript date is closer to 1836 rather than 1880, because the first use of three moonface watermark in Egypt was in early 1840s, and so around this date in western Sudan.