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Lot Essay
The lavish use of gold that is found in this Qur'an manuscript is both impressive and very unusual.
In many ways our Qur'an relates to two that were copied in Herat in the third quarter of the 16th century and recently exhibited in Istanbul at the exhibition 1400. Yilinda Kur'an-i Kerim. They were both signed by the calligrapher Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Halili al-Tabrizi and were dated AH 962/1554-55 AD and AH 979/1571-72 AD (Istanbul, 2010, pp.298-301 and 306-07, cat.74 and 76). Unlike ours, neither of those manuscripts is written completely in gold, but they do share with ours a number of features. Both of those manuscripts have alternating lines of gold and black muhaqqaq. Like our manuscript, the gold calligraphy there is written directly on the page without the use of black outlines as is more common. The very simple verse roundels contained within blue outlines and with a red central dot are also very similar. The formation of the opening illumination of cat. no.76 also closely relates to that on our Qur'an. Although ours is finer and better preserved, in the small scale and somewhat sparse flowers and the bands that flank either side of the text panels, the opening illumination of our Qur'an also relates to one attributed to 16th century Herat in the Ghassan I. Shaker Collection (Safwat, 2000, pp.56-59, no.7).
The tradition of writing Qur'ans in gold exists from an early period. The earliest known complete Qur'an copied in gold was sold at Christie's, London, 23 October 2007, lot 20. That was attributed to Mesopotamia and dated to the first years of the 13th century. The most sumptuous of kufic Qur'an folios were also copied in gold - for instance those of the famous Blue Qur'an copied in Qairouan (for an example see lot 1 in this sale). The tradition carried on through the Mamluks, and the Ottomans (an Ottoman Qur'an dated 1715 and copied in black-outlined gold muhaqqaq is in the Beit Al-Qur'an, published Manama, 2000, p.91) but few examples of complete manuscripts exist today. Their rarity suggests that the practice was reserved for only the most important of commissions.
In many ways our Qur'an relates to two that were copied in Herat in the third quarter of the 16th century and recently exhibited in Istanbul at the exhibition 1400. Yilinda Kur'an-i Kerim. They were both signed by the calligrapher Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Halili al-Tabrizi and were dated AH 962/1554-55 AD and AH 979/1571-72 AD (Istanbul, 2010, pp.298-301 and 306-07, cat.74 and 76). Unlike ours, neither of those manuscripts is written completely in gold, but they do share with ours a number of features. Both of those manuscripts have alternating lines of gold and black muhaqqaq. Like our manuscript, the gold calligraphy there is written directly on the page without the use of black outlines as is more common. The very simple verse roundels contained within blue outlines and with a red central dot are also very similar. The formation of the opening illumination of cat. no.76 also closely relates to that on our Qur'an. Although ours is finer and better preserved, in the small scale and somewhat sparse flowers and the bands that flank either side of the text panels, the opening illumination of our Qur'an also relates to one attributed to 16th century Herat in the Ghassan I. Shaker Collection (Safwat, 2000, pp.56-59, no.7).
The tradition of writing Qur'ans in gold exists from an early period. The earliest known complete Qur'an copied in gold was sold at Christie's, London, 23 October 2007, lot 20. That was attributed to Mesopotamia and dated to the first years of the 13th century. The most sumptuous of kufic Qur'an folios were also copied in gold - for instance those of the famous Blue Qur'an copied in Qairouan (for an example see lot 1 in this sale). The tradition carried on through the Mamluks, and the Ottomans (an Ottoman Qur'an dated 1715 and copied in black-outlined gold muhaqqaq is in the Beit Al-Qur'an, published Manama, 2000, p.91) but few examples of complete manuscripts exist today. Their rarity suggests that the practice was reserved for only the most important of commissions.