POSSIBLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO IBRAHIM SULTAN SON OF SHAHRUKH, TIMURID IRAN, 15TH CENTURY

An inscription at the beginning of this Qur'an attributes it to Ibrahim Sultan son of Shahrukh bin Timur (1394-1435 AD). Shahrukh ruled as an Islamic Sultan and after taking power, quickly moved to establish the ideological foundations of his rule. A number of individual exercises in piety were thus undertaken by members of his family. Baysunghur for instance, designed a monumental dedicatory inscription for the iwan of the mosque at Mashhad built by his mother. Ulugh-Beg designed an enormous Qur'an stand and memorized the Qur'an with seven variant readings. Ibrahim executed pious inscriptions (on two madrasas that he founded in Shiraz, the Dar al-Safa and the Dar al-Aytam) and copied at least five Qur'ans (as well as being reported to have copied a sixth giant Qur'an, given as a wafq to the cemetery of Baba Lutfullah Imaduddin in Shiraz).

One such Qur'an is in the Metropolitan Museum (13.228.1; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision, exhibition catalogue, Washington DC, 1989, no.22, p.84). That example is dated 4 Ramadan AH 830/29 June 1427 AD. Both the strong naskh in which the Qur'an is written and the delicate floral marginal illumination bear strong resemblance to the present example, making the attribution on the opening folio of our Qur'an a credible one. The seal impressions of the Timurid Prince Muhammad Mohsen son of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. AH 873-875/1469-70 AD and AH 875-911/1470-1506 AD), which are found both at the beginning and end of the manuscript, serve to strengthen the Royal Timurid association.