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Lot Essay
This Qur'an fragment is written in an extremely elegant muhaqqaq, the favoured script for the larger Qur'ans of Iraq and Iran under the Ilkhanid Mongols. With the letters' sweeping horizontal sublinear extensions, muhaqqaq has the effect of impetus unequalled in other scripts. Probably because of this, the script was also widely used by the Mamluks. Martin Lings and Yasin Safadi write that Ilkhanid Qur'ans are however considerably rarer than Mamluk ones because the style was more quickly superseded and because of the destructiveness of the 14th century Timurid invasion, which Mamluk Egypt was spared (The Qur'an, exhibition catalogue, London, 1976, p.68).
In terms of the script this Qur'an relates to a copy in the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem which also has a Persian interlinear translation and is attributed to the 13th Century (Khader Salameh, The Qur'an Manuscripts in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic Museum, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 2001, no.7, pp.62- 65). The illumination, particularly of the marginal roundels, is very similar to that of a Qur'an attributed to circa 1330-1345 Iraq in the Chester Beatty Library (inv.ms.1498; David James, Qur'ans and Bindings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1980, no. 45, p.62).
In terms of the script this Qur'an relates to a copy in the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem which also has a Persian interlinear translation and is attributed to the 13th Century (Khader Salameh, The Qur'an Manuscripts in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic Museum, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 2001, no.7, pp.62- 65). The illumination, particularly of the marginal roundels, is very similar to that of a Qur'an attributed to circa 1330-1345 Iraq in the Chester Beatty Library (inv.ms.1498; David James, Qur'ans and Bindings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1980, no. 45, p.62).