PROBABLY OTTOMAN CAIRO AND FROM A QUR'AN DATED AH 969/1561-62 AD

Details

A VERY LARGE QUR'AN BIFOLIUM
PROBABLY OTTOMAN CAIRO AND FROM A QUR'AN DATED AH 969/1561-62 AD
Comprising Qur'an XLII (sura al-shura), vv.42-53, XLIII (sura al-zukhruf), vv.1-3 (part) and vv.49-69 (part), Arabic manuscript on paper, each folio with 11ll. of powerful black muhaqqaq, with gold and blue roundel verse markers, 'ashr marginal markers in gold thuluth outlined with black, with red and blue reading marks, the name of God in gold and the bismallah in gold outlined with black, sura heading in white thuluth outlined with black over gold ground with red floral illumination within rectangular cartouche with blue and white borders, text within gold and blue rules, slight corrosion of the ink, very good condition, mounted, framed and glazed
Text panel 15 x 9in. (38.2 x 23cm.); folio 19 x 12¾in. (48.3 x 32.8cm.)

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Lot Essay

A bifolium from the same Qur'an is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection. In his discussion of the Qur'an, David James indicates that it was broken up after it was exhibited in the Habib Anavian Gallery in New York in 1979 (David James, After Timur, Oxford, 1992, p.238-9, cat.59). The gallery guide states that the Qur'an was made Egypt, probably Cairo in 1561-2 AD. This Qur'an is supposedly copied by Abu al-Hassan al-'Usayli al-Hanafi.

The large size of the manuscript as well as the strong muhaqqaq script undoubtedly draw on from the best examples of Mamluk Qur'ans that were produced in 14th Egypt. James comes to the conclusion that if this manuscript is indeed dated 1561-2, it is 'one of the most outstanding provincial Ottoman Qur'ans of the period' (David James, op.cit., p.238).

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