SULTANATE INDIA, 15TH CENTURY

Surviving manuscripts from pre-Mughal Sultanate India are extremely rare. Our Qur’an shares close similarities with a Qur’an produced in the Gwalior fortress south of Delhi, and a further North Indian Qur’an in the Walters Art Museum (inv.no.563.5). The Walters Art Museum Qur'an, although undated, has been attributed to the fifteenthth century on account of a later seal of Sultan Bayezid (r.1481-1512).

In her inventory of known Sultanate manuscripts, which includes our Qur’an, Éloïse Brac de La Perrière identifies only six dated Qur’ans corresponding with the pre-Mughal period (L’art du livre dans l’Inde des sultanats, Paris, 2008, p.142, fig. 44 and 45 and pp. 297–308). The best of these, and the earliest in date, is the Gwalior Qur’an in the Aga Khan Museum (inv.no AKM281), which is dated 1399 AD during the Tughluq dynasty (1320–1413). The Gwalior Qur’an was completed at a critical moment in the history of Sultanate India. Only one year earlier, Timur had swept through Delhi, ending nearly two hundred years of dominance by the Sultanate of Delhi (Éloïse Brac de La Perrière, Frantz Chaigne and Mathilde Cruvelier, ‘The Qur’an of Gwalior, Kaleidoscope of the Arts of the Book’ in Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum, Istanbul, 2010, p.115).

Unlike the Gwalior Qur’an which is written primarily in bihari, our impressive Qur'an belongs to a small group of Qur'ans dating from the India of the Sultanates and written in muhaqqaq. This group has been recently identified by Éloïse Brac de la Perrière and is soon to be published ("Prisme indien : Recherches sur les corans en écriture bihari des origines à nos jours", Aix-Marseille University). They include a Qur'an in the Walters Art Museum (mentioned above, inv.no.563.5), a Qur'an sold at Sotheby's, 6 April, 2011, lot 190, and part of a Qur'an sold at Millon Paris, 4 June 2012, lot 164. The use of muhaqqaq, not only in the titles, but also in the Qur'anic text which is present here in both large (jali) and small (khafi) script, seems to have been reserved for these higher quality codices which are also found in Timurid manuscripts, especially those produced in the Herat region. A Sultanate Qur’an sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 38 was written in an alternation of naskh and a particularly energetic thuluth. With regards to a later Sultanate Qur’an dated 1488 AD, at the end of the Lodi dynasty, in the British Library (acc.18163), JP Losty designates the calligraphy as a sort of ‘Indian thuluth’ – a dynamic variation of the script which is much less static than its conventional form (JP Losty, The Art of the Book in India, London, 1982, pp.40 and 57, no.21). The vigorous calligraphy here could certainly fit into this category. These examples showcase the awareness of Sultanate calligraphers of the classic scripts.

Both in terms of richness and also the originality in its inspirations from earlier Persian decorative elements, the illumination of this Qur’an, is very similar to a dated Sultanate Qur’an recently sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 38 and also to the Gwalior Qur’an. The “extraordinary garden” of the Gwalior Qur’an (Brac de La Perrière, (et. al.) op.cit., p.119) is reflected in the extremely varied and finely painted marginal medallions. The playfulness of the illumination extends into the sura headings which present a multitude of combinations of colours especially blue, black and pink and red grounds with spiralling arabesques, palmettes and flowers.

The turbulent history of fifteenth century India, as well as the unfavourable climatic conditions, means that few Qur'ans from the Indian Sultanates survive. Many are in poor condition and incomplete. Consequently, our Qur'an stands out as an extraordinary specimen, a complete illuminated Qur'an from the high period of the Sultanates.