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Lot Essay
This rare early Ottoman Qur’an was copied in the period when the capital of the Ottoman Empire was based at Edirne (1363-1453). Although there are not many Qur’ans attributed to this centre, the original quality of this manuscript indicates imperial patronage. One of the Qur’an’s most striking features is the remaining original illumination, particularly of the opening shamsa, which employs a wide range of bold colours juxtaposed with black and incorporates large fleshy flowerheads and serrated leaves amongst its decorative motifs. All of these features can be closely paralleled in the original wall painting of the Muradiye Cami in Edirne, the construction of which was completed in 1435-36.
The illumination of our manuscript also bears resemblance to a monumental Qur’an in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Bursa which Raby and Tanindi refer to as ‘probably the finest Ottoman manuscript to survive from the period before 1460’ (MS.207; Raby and Tanindi, 1993, no.1, pp.106-11). Like ours, the illumination of that Qur’an has elegant headings in white stylized kufic on a ground of elegant gold arabesque heightened with red. The text is set in clouds against a red hatched ground decorated with occasional flowers. The verse roundels, like ours, are simple rosettes with polychrome highlights. The bold floral border on black ground that flanks the text panel on the opening bifolio is similar to the to the decoration that surrounds the headings on a Qur’an in the Chester Beatty Library (Lings, 1976, no.89, p.172). Like ours that has bold polychrome flowers on a black ground which surround similar titles. Tradition associates that manuscript with the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid I (d. AH 805/1401 AD) and again supports an Ottoman attribution for our manuscript.
The illumination of our manuscript also bears resemblance to a monumental Qur’an in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Bursa which Raby and Tanindi refer to as ‘probably the finest Ottoman manuscript to survive from the period before 1460’ (MS.207; Raby and Tanindi, 1993, no.1, pp.106-11). Like ours, the illumination of that Qur’an has elegant headings in white stylized kufic on a ground of elegant gold arabesque heightened with red. The text is set in clouds against a red hatched ground decorated with occasional flowers. The verse roundels, like ours, are simple rosettes with polychrome highlights. The bold floral border on black ground that flanks the text panel on the opening bifolio is similar to the to the decoration that surrounds the headings on a Qur’an in the Chester Beatty Library (Lings, 1976, no.89, p.172). Like ours that has bold polychrome flowers on a black ground which surround similar titles. Tradition associates that manuscript with the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid I (d. AH 805/1401 AD) and again supports an Ottoman attribution for our manuscript.