SIGNED AHMAD AL-HAFIZ AL-KASHANI, HERAT OR TABRIZ, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED 12 JUMADA II AH 943 / 26 NOVEMBER 1536 AD

This Qur'an manuscript comes from the descendants of an Albanian soldier, Demir 'Ali Arza, who travelled to Istanbul in 1905 as a soldier in the Ottoman army. There, he acquired a number of manuscripts which he brought back to his family home in Korçë, South East Albania. Since the fifteenth century, the Balkans in general - and Albania in particular - had provided much of the manpower for the Ottoman Empire's army and its administrative elite through the operation of the devshirme. Those hailing from there include the Köprülü dynasty of Viziers, who dominated the politics of the Empire throughout the seventeenth century, and later governors/rebels like 'Ali Pasha of Tepelana and - of course - the Egyptian ruler Muhammad 'Ali.

Demir 'Ali Arza remained in Albania after its independence in 1912, and served in the army of King Zog (r.1928-39) and eventually died during the Second World War. The manuscript also remained with the family, who by then had moved to a town near Durres, after 1967 when the brutal Stalinist-inspired government of Enver Hoxha attempted to banish all forms of religion from the country. Those with religious surnames were forced to change them, men were forbidden to grow beards, and historic mosques and tekkes were demolished or repurposed. The large 16th century mosque of Berat, for example, became a facility for training acrobats. Religious manuscripts could be confiscated, and their owners sentenced to ten years' hard labour. This small manuscript, however, was concealed by the family until after the end of the regime in 1991.

For a discussion of miniature Qur'an manuscript like this, see the previous lot in the current sale. This is an unusually fine example: slightly larger in size and circular in shape, the ghubari script is particularly strong and fine throughout. The comparatively larger format gives the illuminator more room for a confident illumination on the frontispiece which can be compared with full-scale Qur'ans of the same period. Particularly distinctive are the red and lime-green split palmettes around the text box, which can be compared with those on a Qur'an manuscript in the Khalili Collection attributed to Herat or Tabriz in the second quarter of the 16th century (David James, After Timur, London, 1992, p.128, no.35). A Qur'an also with this decorative motif was sold in these Rooms as part of a Private Collection Donated to Benefit the University of Oxford, 4 October 2012, lot 27. Intriguingly that manuscript, dated 20 Dhu'l Hijjah AH 962/15 November 1555 AD, was signed by an Asadullah bin Muhammad al-Kashani, suggesting ours may also have been written by one of a group - or family - of Kashani scribes active in Eastern Iran during the reign of Shah Tahmasp I (r.1524-76).