SAFAVID SHIRAZ, IRAN, THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY

This magnificent Safavid Qur’an, probably copied between the 1550s and 1580s, demonstrates 16th century Shirazi illumination at its best. It is extremely heavily illuminated with two densely decorated bifolios at the beginning preceding a folio with an illuminated headpiece at the start of sura al-baqara. There is a further illuminated headpiece at the end, containing the prayers to be recited after the completion of the Qur’an. All of the illumination is very elegantly executed.

The overall layout of the second bifolio of the Qur’an, which contains the Fatiha, finds a close comparable on a Qur’an in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection which bears a date of AH 972/1564-65 AD (David James, After Timur. Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, London, 1992, pp.186-187, no.45). On both, the central rectangle of the illumination contains a central gold-ground calligraphic cartouche with three smaller cartouches above and below. The ground around them is cobalt-blue. Both the cartouches and the ground are elegantly filled with flowering scrolls and polychrome cloud bands. Similar scrolls and cloud bands can be found on other Shirazi Qur’ans, including one in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul which is attributed to circa 1580 (TIEM 378; Istanbul, 2012, pp.330-331, cat.84). A very similarly illuminated Safavid Shirazi Qur’an was sold in these rooms, 25 October 2018, lot 109.