.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A note by the famous calligrapher Hamid al-Amidi (also known as Hamid Aytaç) on the verso of this folio, states that some of the margins of the manuscript were repaired for the owner Alwand al-Ruhi Salah al-Din Efendi, but that the final page of the manuscript, on which the scribe Ibn al-Wahid had written some prayers dated to Rajab AH 703 had not been restored to the manuscript due to the extensive damage it had sustained. It records that Ibn al-Wahid completed the manuscript in AH 703/1303-04 AD. The note is dated AH 1373/1953-54 AD. Hamid al-Amidi's large purple stamp is at the bottom next to his name. The is another ownership note in a different hand below which is dated either Jumada II AH 792 or 892 / 1389 or 1486 AD.
Ibn al-Wahid (d.1311) was the most famous Mamluk scribe of the early 14th century. Although he was an extremely celebrated calligrapher, the British Library Baybars Qur’an, is his only indubitable work to survive. Copied in 1304-06, only one year after the Qur’an from which our folio comes is said to have been written, the British Library Qur’an has illumination completed by three artists overseen by Abu Bakr, known as Sandal. The illumination on our folio differs quite dramatically from Sandal’s work and is therefore important in that it shows Ibn al-Wahid working with other illuminators in different styles.
Our folio compares very closely to the frontispieces of slightly later but magnificent Qur’ans, dubbed by David James as the ’star polygon group’. Those mostly date to the reign of Sultan Sha’ban (1363-76) although there are a few related earlier examples (David James, Qur’ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, p.178). One of these is a Qur’an in the National Library in Cairo, dated AH 757/1356 AD. That relates very closely to ours in design. In his discussion on the Cairo Qur’an, David James states that the decoration is the earliest example of a Cairo Qur’an in the “classic” tradition that seems to have originated in Damascus. He observes however that “the central star polygon pattern is identical to that used in an earlier Mamluk manuscript of 1313, but with more tightly controlled decoration in the interstices of the trellis” (James, op.cit., pp.188-89). The fact that such illuminations were produced in the early part of the 14th century in Damascus suggests that it may have been possible for a manuscript by Ibn al-Wahid to be illuminated in the same style. A Mamluk Qur’an offered by Sotheby’s, 3 October 2012, lot 22 again shared similar illumination. Although not published in the catalogue that had a colophon which dated it to AH 705, two years after the production of our manuscript.
Ibn al-Wahid (d.1311) was the most famous Mamluk scribe of the early 14th century. Although he was an extremely celebrated calligrapher, the British Library Baybars Qur’an, is his only indubitable work to survive. Copied in 1304-06, only one year after the Qur’an from which our folio comes is said to have been written, the British Library Qur’an has illumination completed by three artists overseen by Abu Bakr, known as Sandal. The illumination on our folio differs quite dramatically from Sandal’s work and is therefore important in that it shows Ibn al-Wahid working with other illuminators in different styles.
Our folio compares very closely to the frontispieces of slightly later but magnificent Qur’ans, dubbed by David James as the ’star polygon group’. Those mostly date to the reign of Sultan Sha’ban (1363-76) although there are a few related earlier examples (David James, Qur’ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, p.178). One of these is a Qur’an in the National Library in Cairo, dated AH 757/1356 AD. That relates very closely to ours in design. In his discussion on the Cairo Qur’an, David James states that the decoration is the earliest example of a Cairo Qur’an in the “classic” tradition that seems to have originated in Damascus. He observes however that “the central star polygon pattern is identical to that used in an earlier Mamluk manuscript of 1313, but with more tightly controlled decoration in the interstices of the trellis” (James, op.cit., pp.188-89). The fact that such illuminations were produced in the early part of the 14th century in Damascus suggests that it may have been possible for a manuscript by Ibn al-Wahid to be illuminated in the same style. A Mamluk Qur’an offered by Sotheby’s, 3 October 2012, lot 22 again shared similar illumination. Although not published in the catalogue that had a colophon which dated it to AH 705, two years after the production of our manuscript.