SIGNED RUH'ULLAH, NORTH OR CENTRAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

The very striking technique of writing calligraphy in gold ink is very challenging. The pigment by its nature is much less fluid than a standard carbon black ink and therefore manuscripts written entirely in gold are relatively rare. A manuscript of five suras in the Khalili collection attributed to 17th century North India has very similar gold naskh on a contrasting dyed chocolate ground (Manijeh Bayani, Anna Contadini and Tim Stanley, The Decorated Word, Part I, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Oxford, 1999, no.65, pp.204). The Shi’a nature of the text suggests that this manuscript could also have been copied in the Deccan. A similarly striking Qur’an manuscript with gold naskh on blue ground dated AH 1099/1678-88 AD was sold in these Rooms, 9 October 2014, lot 6.