SIGNED MUHAMMAD BIN SHAMS AL-DIN MUHAMMAD AL-YAZDI, SAFAVID HERAT, DATED RABI I AH 966/DECEMBER - JANUARY 1588-89 AD

Details

QUR'AN
SIGNED MUHAMMAD BIN SHAMS AL-DIN MUHAMMAD AL-YAZDI, SAFAVID HERAT, DATED RABI I AH 966/DECEMBER - JANUARY 1588-89 AD
Arabic manuscript on paper, 349ff. plus two flyleaves, each folio with 15ll. of which the first and final are in lapis muhaqqaq, the middle in gold muhaqqaq, and the remainder in black naskh with some notation in red, gold roundel verse markers, sura headings in white thuluth in gold cartouches within blue illuminated panel, the black script with illuminated medallions and spandrels to each side, in gold and polychrome rules, catchwords, the margins plain with illuminated medallions to mark divisions within blue outer rules, opening bifolio with 6ll. naskh reserved against a gold field with densely illuminated margins, colophon signed, and dated, in contemporaneous gilt stamped brown leather binding, doublures with blue decoupé medallion and spandrels, watermarks to edges of paper
Text panel 5 7⁄8 x 3 ½in. (15 x 8.8cm.); folio 8 7⁄8 x 5 ½in. (22.5 x 14cm.)

Provenance

With Dutch trade by 1995, from which acquired by the current owner

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The use of three different scripts, muhaqqaq, thuluth, and naskh, throughout the Qur'an is associated with the calligraphers of Safavid Herat and is here executed to exceptional effect (Nabil F. Safwat, Golden Pages: Qur'ans and other manuscripts from the collection of Ghassan I. Shaker, Oxford, pp.56-9). Nabil Safwat suggests that the use of a variety of calligraphic styles, colours and sizes cultivates a "visual and emotional awareness" in the reader (op.cit., p.57). The scribe, Muhammad bin Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Yazdi, does not appear to be recorded.

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