The book of Prof. Dr. Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Marzouk, The Noble Qur’an: A Historical and Artistic Study, is unique in its distinctive description of the external appearance of the noble Qur’an, the “Safini” Qur’an (named after the ship, safina, because it is close in shape to the general form of a ship); in art-history books it is described as having the “Italian format.”
As for the upright (vertical) Qur’an, it is described in art-history books as having the “French format.”
This [vertical] form is the one that was familiar in books before Islam and after it, and it is also the form still common in books to this day.
