SAFAVID IRAN, 16TH CENTURY

This elaborately illuminated folio is a falnama (letter of omens), which was incorporated in Qur’ans to guide the reader to the meaning behind the letters they have happened upon, when consulted for bibliomancy. The practice of including highly elaborate falnamas within Qur’ans became much more common during the Safavid period. For a very similar falnama folio included in a Safavid Qur’an in the Freer Sackler Gallery see Washington, 2009, no.7.2, p.226.