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Lot Essay
This impressive and large scale Qur'an, copied in the reign of Fath 'Ali Shah, has exuberant illumination the whole way through, demonstrating the way in which manuscripts continued to be viewed as precious objects in the Qajar period.
It was copied for Aqa Mirza Yusuf Muzahhib. His son, 'Ali Taqi, wrote the Ruba'iyyat of Omar Khayyam offered as here part of the Private Collection donated to benefit Oxford University (lot 33). Another manuscript copied by a son of his was sold in these Rooms, 11 April 2000, lot 93. As his title muzahhib bashi suggests, he was the palace illuminator, and though it is not mentioned here whether this Qur'an is illuminated by him, it seems likely that he would at least have ensured that the illumination was of the highest quality. For more information on Aqa Mirza Yusuf Muzahhib and his sons, see Karimzadeh Tabrizi, The Lives and Art of Old Painters of Iran, London, 1990, vol.3, pp.1429-30.
The scribe of this Qur'an is Sayyid Muhammad Hassan al-Husayni. A Muhammad Hassan wrote the Persian interlinear translation of a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection, which is dated AH 1264 and 1265/1847-49 AD (see Manijeh Bayani et al., The Decorated Word, London, 2009, part II, no. 19, p. 108). If the two Muhammad Hassan's are the same, then this Qur'an must have been amongst his first works.
There are notes recording births on the flyleaves, including those of a Mirza Kazim Khan in AH 1315/1897-89 AD and his son Muhammad Rahim Khan in AH 1337/1919-20 AD. There are also numerous later inscriptions.
It was copied for Aqa Mirza Yusuf Muzahhib. His son, 'Ali Taqi, wrote the Ruba'iyyat of Omar Khayyam offered as here part of the Private Collection donated to benefit Oxford University (lot 33). Another manuscript copied by a son of his was sold in these Rooms, 11 April 2000, lot 93. As his title muzahhib bashi suggests, he was the palace illuminator, and though it is not mentioned here whether this Qur'an is illuminated by him, it seems likely that he would at least have ensured that the illumination was of the highest quality. For more information on Aqa Mirza Yusuf Muzahhib and his sons, see Karimzadeh Tabrizi, The Lives and Art of Old Painters of Iran, London, 1990, vol.3, pp.1429-30.
The scribe of this Qur'an is Sayyid Muhammad Hassan al-Husayni. A Muhammad Hassan wrote the Persian interlinear translation of a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection, which is dated AH 1264 and 1265/1847-49 AD (see Manijeh Bayani et al., The Decorated Word, London, 2009, part II, no. 19, p. 108). If the two Muhammad Hassan's are the same, then this Qur'an must have been amongst his first works.
There are notes recording births on the flyleaves, including those of a Mirza Kazim Khan in AH 1315/1897-89 AD and his son Muhammad Rahim Khan in AH 1337/1919-20 AD. There are also numerous later inscriptions.