BY YAHYA BIN NASIR OR A CLOSE FOLLOWER, IRAN, MID 14TH CENTURY

In many ways this Qur'an bifolio, with its extremely elegant vigorous gold muhaqqaq script and blue vocalisation relates closely to one copied by the famous scribe Yahya bin Nasir al-Jamali al-Sufi between 1344 and 1346. Yahya bin Nasir is said to have been a pupil of Ahmad Rumi and Mubarak Shah bin Qutb, a pupil of the renowned Yaqut, and - according to some authorities - one of the sittah. That Qur'an was commissioned by Tashi Khatun, the mother of Abu Ishaq, the Inju'id ruler of Shiraz, endowed to the shrine of Ahmad bin Musa bin Ja'far in Shiraz (also known the Shah-i Cheraq), and later transferred to the Pars Museum in Shiraz (David James, Qur'ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, cat.69, fig.115, pp.162-64). It is approximately the same size as ours, but each folio is arranged with 5ll. of muhaqqaq as opposed to the 7ll., in alternating sizes, of ours. There is not sufficient evidence to attribute this bifolio to the famous Yahya, but it seems likely that the Qur'an from which it comes was copied at a similar period to Tashi Khatun's and very possibly by a follower of Yahya bin Nasir or a scribe familiar with his style.

Other folios from this Qur'an are in the Art and History Trust (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts. Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection, New York, 1992, no.15, p.44) and the Nasser D. Khalili collection (David James, The Master Scribes, Oxford, 1992, no.32, pp.140-41). A further bifolium, that had been bleached and lacked colour, was sold in these rooms, 4 October 2012, lot 104.