COPIED BY AHMAD AL-DHIHNI (AHMED ZIHNI), KNOWN AS SAFI-ZADA AL-KUTAHI (SAFI-ZADE KÜTAHI), ILLUMINATED BY HUSAYN, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED AH 1257 / 1841-42 AD

Details

QUR'AN
COPIED BY AHMAD AL-DHIHNI (AHMED ZIHNI), KNOWN AS SAFI-ZADA AL-KUTAHI (SAFI-ZADE KÜTAHI), ILLUMINATED BY HUSAYN, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED AH 1257 / 1841-42 AD
Arabic manuscript on burnished paper, 290ff. plus two flyleaves, each folio with 15ll. black naskh, gold and polychrome roundel verse markers, sura headings in white naskh within gold and polychrome panels, set within gold and black rules, the margins with illuminated medallions and occasional floral sprays, catchwords, the opening bifolio with gold and polychrome illumination framing 7ll. black naskh in clouds reserved against gold, the margins with gold illuminated saz leaf decoration, the finispiece with gold and polychrome illumination framing 9ll. black naskh arranged in an oval, colophon signed 'Abd al-Da'if Sayyid Ahmad al-Zihni known as Safi Zadeh al-Kutahi and dated 1257 in red, illumination signed Husayn below in red, in contemporaneous brown morocco with flap decorated with gold painted central medallion and knotted border, yellow paper doublures sprinkled with silver, overall clean and good condition
Text panel 5 ½ x 2 7/8in. (13 x 7.2cm.); folio 7 5/8 x 4 ¾in. (19.3 x 12.2cm.)

Provenance

Private Collection, France, by 1995

Sale room notice

Please note that the date in the colophon of this Qur'an is 1257 as stated in the second line of the cataloguing and not 1207 as mentioned in the description of the printed catalogue.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Ahmed Zihni was born in the city of Kutahya as a member of the Safi Zade family. He was a student under Hasan Fezvi (Hasan al-Fawzi), known as Kalatakci-zade (Qaltaqchi-zada), himself a student to master Deli Osman (Osman the Mad, d.1805) and son-in-law of Ibrahim Afif Efendi (d.1767). Other than this Qur'an, a Qur'an by him dated AH 1262 / 1845 AD is in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, Istanbul, and third Qur'an was sold at Sotheby's London, 9 October 2013, lot 78. A Qur'an dated AH 1265 / 1849 AD and copied by Mehmed Shakir, a student of Ahmed Zihni, was sold by Sotheby's, London, 25 April 2018, lot 59.

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