AN INJUID QUR'AN BIFOLIUM
AN INJUID QUR'AN BIFOLIUM

BY YAHYA BIN NASIR OR A CLOSE FOLLOWER, IRAN, MID 14TH CENTURY

Details
AN INJUID QUR'AN BIFOLIUM
BY YAHYA BIN NASIR OR A CLOSE FOLLOWER, IRAN, MID 14TH CENTURY
Qur'an XXII, sura al-hajj, middle of v.4 to middle of v.5, the other side middle of v.11 to middle of v.15, Arabic manuscript on cream paper, each folio with 7ll. of bold gold muhaqqaq outlined in black, the first, fourth and seventh lines in double size, gold rosettes between verses, diacritical marks in gold, vocalisation in blue and red ink, later catchwords, trimmed
Folio 17½ x 10¾in. (44.5 x 27.2cm.)

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Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse
Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse

Lot Essay

In many ways this Qur'an bifolio, with its extremely elegant vigorous gold muhaqqaq script and blue vocalisation relates closely to one copied by the famous scribe Yahya bin Nasir al-Jamali al-Sufi between 1344 and 1346. Yahya bin Nasir is said to have been a pupil of Ahmad Rumi and Mubarak Shah bin Qutb, a pupil of the renowned Yaqut, and - according to some authorities - one of the sittah. That Qur'an was commissioned by Tashi Khatun, the mother of Abu Ishaq, the Inju'id ruler of Shiraz, endowed to the shrine of Ahmad bin Musa bin Ja'far in Shiraz (also known the Shah-i Cheraq), and later transferred to the Pars Museum in Shiraz (David James, Qur'ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, cat.69, fig.115, pp.162-64). It is approximately the same size as ours, but each folio is arranged with 5ll. of muhaqqaq as opposed to the 7ll., in alternating sizes, of ours. There is not sufficient evidence to attribute this bifolio to the famous Yahya, but it seems likely that the Qur'an from which it comes was copied at a similar period to Tashi Khatun's and very possibly by a follower of Yahya bin Nasir or a scribe familiar with his style.

Other folios from this Qur'an are in the Art and History Trust (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts. Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection, New York, 1992, no.15, p.44) and the Nasser D. Khalili collection (David James, The Master Scribes, Oxford, 1992, no.32, pp.140-41). A further bifolium, that had been bleached and lacked colour, was sold in these rooms, 4 October 2012, lot 104.

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