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Lot Essay
This royal Qur’an juz’ is in the hand of the master scribe, Zayn al-‘Abidin b. Muhammad al-Katib al-Shirazi, and was created for the Aqquyunlu ruler of Tabriz, Ya’qub Beg (r.1478-90). Sultan Ya'qub was the son of the most famous of the Aqquyunlu rulers, Uzun Hasan. At their capital, Tabriz, a distinguished tradition of literary and cultural patronage was established. Among the many scientists and scholars that were employed at the court was Fazlallah Khunji Isfahani, who is well known for his history of the Aqquyunlu dynasty.
Our Qur’an juz’ exemplifies one of the most complex examples of juxtaposing large and small scripts, a practice which was occasionally used in the twelfth century, and became much more common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially in Central Asia. Zayn al-‘Abidin, who has been referred to as the master of such a technique, transcribed this Qur’an manuscript with large and elegant lines of muhaqqaq and thuluth sandwiching smaller boxes of naskh. He reserved his finest effect for some of the colophon pages to the volume, juxtaposing as many of the six ‘Pens’ as possible on the same page.
As Blair (2008, pp.268-270) argues, such a format was not to all tastes and this mixture of scripts was not popular in Egypt or Syria, where a change in script indicated a change in text. This format seems to have been especially appealing in Iran and adjacent lands at this time as part of the taste for calligraphic specimens, which often juxtaposed different scripts written at different angles in different colours. A remarkable example of which is housed in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (inv.no. LNS 84 MS).
Another Qur’an completed as a single-volume by Zayn al-‘Abidin is housed in the Astan Quds Razavi Library, in Mashhad. This manuscript is dated 876 AH/1471 AD, and was copied for the Royal Library of Abu’l-Fath Muzaffar al-Din Hasan Bahadur Khan, which must be Uzun Hasan, and donated to the Shrine of Imam Reza by Jahangir (Sahra-Gard, 1393). He was also a teacher of calligraphy (a copy of Rumi’s Mathnavi dated 869 AH/1464-65 AD signed Ahmad al-Katib al-Shirazi, student of Zayn al-‘Abidin b. Muhammad al-Katib, sold in these Rooms, 21 April 2016, lot 80).
A partly legible inscription on f.1a of juz’ II of this Qur’an which was sold at Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2019, lot 10, mentions a dedication to the Aqquyunlu ruler Ya’qub ibn Uzun Hasan Abu’l-Fath (r.1478-90).
Other recorded sections of this Qur’an include:
Juz’ I: Private collection, UK.
Juz’ II: Sotheby’s, London, 23 October 2019, lot 10 (mentioned above)
Juz’ III: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, inv.no.Ms.1502, published in Arberry 1967, p.45.
A leaf from juz’ XVI (f.1b of the illuminated frontispiece), Sotheby’s London, 8 July 1980, lot 161.
Juz’ XXVI: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, inv.no.Ms.1501, published in Arberry 1967, p.45.
Juz’ XXIX: Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2019, lot 121
Two ajza' (numbers unknown) recorded as being in the Mashhad Shrine Library and published in Faza’ili (1391, pp.334-5).
Our Qur’an juz’ exemplifies one of the most complex examples of juxtaposing large and small scripts, a practice which was occasionally used in the twelfth century, and became much more common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially in Central Asia. Zayn al-‘Abidin, who has been referred to as the master of such a technique, transcribed this Qur’an manuscript with large and elegant lines of muhaqqaq and thuluth sandwiching smaller boxes of naskh. He reserved his finest effect for some of the colophon pages to the volume, juxtaposing as many of the six ‘Pens’ as possible on the same page.
As Blair (2008, pp.268-270) argues, such a format was not to all tastes and this mixture of scripts was not popular in Egypt or Syria, where a change in script indicated a change in text. This format seems to have been especially appealing in Iran and adjacent lands at this time as part of the taste for calligraphic specimens, which often juxtaposed different scripts written at different angles in different colours. A remarkable example of which is housed in the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (inv.no. LNS 84 MS).
Another Qur’an completed as a single-volume by Zayn al-‘Abidin is housed in the Astan Quds Razavi Library, in Mashhad. This manuscript is dated 876 AH/1471 AD, and was copied for the Royal Library of Abu’l-Fath Muzaffar al-Din Hasan Bahadur Khan, which must be Uzun Hasan, and donated to the Shrine of Imam Reza by Jahangir (Sahra-Gard, 1393). He was also a teacher of calligraphy (a copy of Rumi’s Mathnavi dated 869 AH/1464-65 AD signed Ahmad al-Katib al-Shirazi, student of Zayn al-‘Abidin b. Muhammad al-Katib, sold in these Rooms, 21 April 2016, lot 80).
A partly legible inscription on f.1a of juz’ II of this Qur’an which was sold at Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2019, lot 10, mentions a dedication to the Aqquyunlu ruler Ya’qub ibn Uzun Hasan Abu’l-Fath (r.1478-90).
Other recorded sections of this Qur’an include:
Juz’ I: Private collection, UK.
Juz’ II: Sotheby’s, London, 23 October 2019, lot 10 (mentioned above)
Juz’ III: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, inv.no.Ms.1502, published in Arberry 1967, p.45.
A leaf from juz’ XVI (f.1b of the illuminated frontispiece), Sotheby’s London, 8 July 1980, lot 161.
Juz’ XXVI: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, inv.no.Ms.1501, published in Arberry 1967, p.45.
Juz’ XXIX: Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2019, lot 121
Two ajza' (numbers unknown) recorded as being in the Mashhad Shrine Library and published in Faza’ili (1391, pp.334-5).