QUR'AN

SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED AH 1244/1828-29 AD

Details

QUR'AN
SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, QAJAR IRAN, DATED AH 1244/1828-29 AD
Arabic manuscript on paper, 326ff. plus two fly-leaves, each folio with 14ll. of elegant black naskh script between gold band divisions, sura headings in red thuluth script within gold and polychrome illuminated cartouches, text within gold and polychrome rules, with marginal illuminated medallions, catchwords, occasional marginal comments within illuminated medallions, opening bifolio heavily illuminated, preceded with "carpet" bifolio, text followed by "carpet" bifolio, signed and dated within a cusped medallion on the last folio, in restored Qajar lacquer binding
Text panel 6 1/8 x 3 3/8in. (15.5 x 8.8cm.); folio 8¼ x 5in. (20.7 x 12.8cm.)

Lot Essay

The scribe of this Qur'an, Muhammad 'Ali, was probably the scribe from whom Fath 'Ali Shah (r.1797-1834 AD) commissioned a Qur'an which sold at Sotheby's, 6 October 2010, lot 22. He is known to have copied two other Qur'ans commissioned by the Shah as well as prayer books, dated between 1822-23 and 1832-33 AD, and all in the Gulistan Palace Library. The date of the present copy falls within these dates. However, a calligraphic page outside the Royal Library bears the earlier date of AH 1207/1792-93 AD (see Mehdi Bayani, ahval va asar-e khosh-nevisan, vol.IV, Tehran, 1358 sh., p.180; B. Atabay, fehrest-e qur'anha-ye khatti-ye ketab-khaneh-ye saltanati, Tehran, 1351 sh., cat. nos.113 and 123

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