INDIA, LATE 15TH OR EARLY 16TH CENTURY

A Qur'an jama, sold as part of 'A Princely Collection', Sotheby's, 5 October 2010, lot 42, had very similar decoration, although our jama has fewer areas of loss. The 'Princely Collection' jama was attributed to the late 14th-15th Century, based on comparing it to a Sultanate Qur'an scroll sold at Sotheby's, 15 October 1998, lot 15. The scroll was dated by an edited chronogram which was interpreted as giving the date of AH 798/1395 AD. However, these Qur'an jamas are closely stylistically related to Qur'ans in bihari script, which were prevalent later in the 15th and early 16th Centuries. For example see a Qur'an sold in these Rooms dated to the 15th Century, 1 May 2001, lot 17, (also E. Brac de la Perriere, L'art du livre dans l'Inde des sultanats, Paris, 2008, pl. 41). It is possible that the reading of the chronogram on the scroll was inaccurate. A later but similarly decorated example which sold in these Rooms, 27 April 1993, lot 38, bore a 17th Century date. A date for our Qur'an jama of the late 15th or early 16th Century seems more probable.