拍品 266
266
A LARGE MUGHAL QUR'AN
A LARGE MUGHAL QUR'AN

INDIA, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

细节
A LARGE MUGHAL QUR'AN
INDIA, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on paper, 586ff. plus 4 fly-leaves, each folio with 9ll. of elegant black muhaqqaq in clouds reserved against gold ground, gold and polychrome roundel verse markers, text panels within gold, black and blue borders, folios with outer borders in red with gold scrolling illumination, later catchwords, sura headings in white on gold cartouches with colourful polychrome floral spandrels and borders, gold and polychrome marginal medallions marking nisf and juz', first and final bifolios of the Qur'an with extremely fine illumination framing text contained in floral illuminated clouds reserved against gold ground with further illumination, middle bifolio of the Qur'an similarly illuminated, remargined, some repairs to margins, in modern brown morocco with gilt stamped central medallion and borders, plain morocco doublures
Text panel 11¼ x 5 3/8in. (28.6 x 13.6cm.); folio 18 3/8 x 11¼in. (46.5 x 28.6cm.)

荣誉呈献

Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse
Andrew Butler-Wheelhouse

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拍品专文

The opening illumination of this Qur'an is very similar to the illumination to a Mughal Qur'an attributed to the 18th Century in the Khalili Collection, (Manijeh Bayani, Anna Contandi and Tim Stanley, The Decorated Word, London, 1999, no. 69, pp. 218-19). Our Qur'an is slightly larger than the Khalili collection example. The script of our Qur'an is particularly elegant, it is written in a flowing elongated muhaqqaq script which contrasts it from the more usual naskh often used in Qur'an manuscripts.

A few of the folios in this Qur'an have very elegant gilt marginal floral decoration. This quality of marginal illumination is usually associated with Qur'ans produced in the royal Mughal kitabkhane. There is a Qur'an in the Khalili collection with similar gilt illuminated margins (op. cit. no. 67, pp. 206-07); a further half Qur'an attributed to the royal Mughal kitabkhane was sold in these Rooms, 8 April 2008, lot 275.