SIGNED TASHAN SI BIN 'ABDULLAH, JINAN, EASTERN CHINA, DATED AH 930/1523-24 AD

Details

QUR'AN
SIGNED TASHAN SI BIN 'ABDULLAH, JINAN, EASTERN CHINA, DATED AH 930/1523-24 AD
Arabic manuscript on paper, 247ff. as numbered plus two fly-leaves, each folio with 17ll. of black sini with sura headings in red within red rules, text panels within double red rules, catchwords, juz', nisf and sajada marked in the margins within polychrome medallions of varying form, first bifolio with elegant gold and polychrome illumination issuing palmettes into the margins and surrounding 9ll. of text, the first in larger gold naskh, the final bifolio with similar illumination surrounding 11ll. with sura headings in gold naskh, first and final folios with shamsas, that on the final page with colophon giving the scribe's name and date, some staining and minor losses to the margins, in contemporaneous Chinese tooled brown morocco with cusped flap, the doublures covered with green cloth terminating in a cusped palmette motif
Text panel 8 x 4 5/8in. (20.2 x 10.4cm.); folio 12 x 8in. (30.4 x 20.2cm.)

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Lot Essay

This is a very rare dated Ming Qur’an. Emperor Zhengde (r. 1491-1521) who reigned just prior to the completion of this manuscript, had numerous Muslim advisors at his court and also several items of porcelain decorated with Islamic calligraphy. A slightly later and undated Chinese Qur’an was sold at Christie’s, South Kensington, 26 April 2013, lot 627. For other, slightly later, Chinese manuscripts in this sale see lots 30 and 31.

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