SIGNED MUHAMMAD MUKARRAM, NORTH INDIA, 18TH CENTURY

The headpiece of the first volume of this Qur'an follows the style of 17th century Mughal court. For a discussion of these and the 18th century production, of which these volumes are fine examples, see Manijeh Bayani, ‘India after 1600. Qur’an patronage and the Mughals,’ and Bayani and Tim Stanley, ‘India and Iran. A complex relationship,’ Bayani et al., The Decorated Word: Qur’ans of the 17th to 19th centuries, Oxford, 1999, pp.171-7, 200-1. A related headpiece is seen in the final volume of a seven-volume Qur’an probably dated AH 1197⁄1782-3 AD in the Khalili Collection (QUR70; ibid., cat.71). A larger, but almost identical binding is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.45).