NORTH INDIA, 18TH CENTURY

The illumination of this Qur'an, based on a series of gold cartouches containing a polychrome lotus-scroll pattern follows the style of 17th and 18th century Mughal Qur'ans. Although deriving from 15th and 16th century Iranian specimens, the style was translated into an Indian artistic idiom in various ways, such as the use of use of paper of a contrasting tone for the margin and the extensive marginal marking of the letter 'ayn to mark each ruku', the reverence made by bowing low enough for the palms to touch the knees. For discussion of this tradition, of which our Qur'an is a fine example, see Manijeh Bayani, ‘India after 1600. Qur’an patronage and the Mughals,’ Manijeh 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.

Illumination related to ours can be found on two Qur'ans - attributed to before 1764 and the 17th century respectively, both in the Khalili Collection (QUR830, QUR70; Bayani and Stanley, op.cit., cats.57, 69). The binding on our Qur'an, however, is almost identical to a two-volume Qur'an sold in these Rooms 30 April 2026, lot 108, which is closer to the former Khalili example mentioned above. This helps us attribute our Qur'an in similar fashion. Another 18th century Indian Qur'an was sold in these Rooms, 18 Apr 2016, lot 23. A larger similar binding is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.45).