A MINIATURE QUR'AN

IRAN OR IRAQ, 11TH CENTURY

Details

A MINIATURE QUR'AN
IRAN OR IRAQ, 11TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on paper, 102ff. plus two fly leaves, each folio with 21ll. of small black naskh with rosette and roundel gold and polychrome verse markers, large marginal medallion juz' markers and 'ashr markers in gold kufic on alternating blue and green ground, marginal palmettes containing scrolling vine on copper ground, sura headings in polychrome kufic on geometric and scrolling vine ground, within strapwork borders and with attached marginal palmettes with scalloped edges containing kufic inscriptions, lacking the first two folios at the beginning and incomplete at the end, in tooled leather binding with textile doublures
Folio 3 1/8 x 2¼in. (8 x 6.8cm.)

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Lot Essay

The marginal medallions and the sura headings found in this Qur'an are closely related to a group of Qur'ans, which includes an example in the British Library dated AH 427/1036-37 AD (inv. ADD.MS.7214) and another in the Chester Beatty Library dated a year later (inv. MS.1430). Both have been attributed to Eastern Iran. The closest comparable however is a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection which is attributed to Iraq or Iran circa 1000-1050 AD and has a frontispiece which has been likened to that of the famous Qur'an attributed to Ibn al-Bawwab, (inv. QUR284, David James, The Master Scribes, London, 1992, Cat. 1, pp.24-25).

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