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Lot Essay
This folio is from a prayer-book known as the Five Suras, which contains each of the suras that begin with the phrase al-hamdu li'llah (I, VI, XVIII, XXXIV and XXXV). David James writes that the manuscript from which these folios come "must have been one of the finest of its type to have been produced in the late 14th century or the early 15th" (David James, After Timur. Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, London, 1992, p.16). He notes that the muhaqqaq is done with "such faultless perfection equalled only by Ibn al-Suhrawardi in the Qur'an he produced in Baghdad in the early years of the 14th century, probably for Ghazan Khan" (James, op. cit., p. 16).
A marginal medallion on the colophon of the manuscript mentions that it was 'copied by the weak slave who implores the Lord's mercy, Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Qayyum, son of Muhammad, son of Karamshah-i Tabrizi'. Abolala Soudavar suggests that the epithet, Tabrizi, indicates that the manuscript was copied in a city other than Tabriz (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, p.50). He goes on to suggest that given the imperial quality of the manuscript, it may have been copied at the court of the Jalayrid prince Shaykh Uways, a considerable patron of the arts, in Baghdad.
Other folios from this copy of the Five Suras are found in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (James, op. cit., cat. 1, p.16) and the David Collection (Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, fig.8, p.59). Another was formerly part of the Art and History Trust Collection (Soudavar, op. cit., cat.19, p.50), now on loan to the Sackler Gallery, Washington. Further folios were sold in Sotheby's, 9 April 2008, lot 24, 8 October 2008, lot 18 and a bifolio on 8 October 2008, lot 19.
A marginal medallion on the colophon of the manuscript mentions that it was 'copied by the weak slave who implores the Lord's mercy, Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Qayyum, son of Muhammad, son of Karamshah-i Tabrizi'. Abolala Soudavar suggests that the epithet, Tabrizi, indicates that the manuscript was copied in a city other than Tabriz (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, p.50). He goes on to suggest that given the imperial quality of the manuscript, it may have been copied at the court of the Jalayrid prince Shaykh Uways, a considerable patron of the arts, in Baghdad.
Other folios from this copy of the Five Suras are found in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (James, op. cit., cat. 1, p.16) and the David Collection (Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, fig.8, p.59). Another was formerly part of the Art and History Trust Collection (Soudavar, op. cit., cat.19, p.50), now on loan to the Sackler Gallery, Washington. Further folios were sold in Sotheby's, 9 April 2008, lot 24, 8 October 2008, lot 18 and a bifolio on 8 October 2008, lot 19.