MAMLUK EGYPT OR SYRIA, 14TH CENTURY

Details

QUR'AN
MAMLUK EGYPT OR SYRIA, 14TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on buff paper, 300ff. plus one fly-leaf, each folio with 13ll. of fine black naskh, punctuation in red, gold and polychrome rosette verse markers, oval marginal medallions with text in white reserved against gold and polychrome ground, sura headings in gold muhaqqaq, fully illuminated opening bifolio with the text panel flanked above and below by headings in gold muhaqqaq set within strapwork bands, the margins with scrolling vine issuing lotus buds, the colophon with an illuminated heading with gold muhaqqaq in white cloud reserved against a blue ground with scrolling vine, some loose folios, in later maroon morocco binding with stamped medallion and pendants
Folio 13¾ x 10in. (34.9 x 25.4cm.)

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Lot Essay

The illuminated border surrounding the text panel on the opening bifolio of this Qur’an is very similar to the illustrations on a Qur’an juz’ in the Chester Beatty Library which Martin Lings catalogues as 14th century Mamluk (Inv.Ms1465; Martin Lings, The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, London, 1976, no.40). The illuminated headings on the opening bifolio of our Qur’an are also similar to those found in the Chester Beatty juz’ in that the text in both is reserved against an almost identical ground of scrolling vine issuing cusped foliage.

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