QUR'AN

COPIED FOR SADR AL-A'ZAM (PRIME MINISTER) AMIN AL-DAWLA, SIGNED MUHAMMAD HASSAN AL-ISFAHANI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED SH'ABAN AH 1237/APRIL-MAY 1822 AD

Details

QUR'AN
COPIED FOR SADR AL-A'ZAM (PRIME MINISTER) AMIN AL-DAWLA, SIGNED MUHAMMAD HASSAN AL-ISFAHANI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED SH'ABAN AH 1237/APRIL-MAY 1822 AD
Arabic manuscript on paper, 31ff. plus 1 fly-leaf, each folio with between 40 and 45ll. of neat black ghubari, gold verse roundels, sura headings in gold, text panels within gold rules, the margins with occasional commentary in black ghubari, and gold juz', khamsa, 'ashr, nisf and hizb markers, opening bifolio with large floral medallions containing prayers in black naskh surrounded by band of scrolling floral vine on red ground, and further gold and polychrome illumination, colophon signed and dated, loose in contemporary floral lacquer binding
Text panel 8¼ x 5½in. (21 x 13.8cm.); folio 10¼ x 7in. (26 x 17.7cm.)

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Lot Essay

This Qur'an was commissioned for 'Abdullah Khan Amin al-Dawlah, who served as Prime Minister under Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar. He was appointed to the post in AH 1235/1818-19 AD and held it until his death in AH 1239/1823-24 AD (M. Bamdad, Dictionary of National Biography of Iran, 1700-1900, vol.III, Tehran, 1966, pp.379-81).

The scribe, Muhammad Hassan al-Isfahani, is known to have copied another three manuscripts, all of prayers and dated between AH 1237 and 1342/1821 and 1827 AD (Mehdi Bayani, Ahval va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol.4, Tehran, 1358 sh., pp.147-48).

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