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Lot Essay
The unusual and intricate frontispiece features the text of al-fatiha written in chrysography on six illuminated blue cartouches. This unusually sparse use of the written word leaves more space for illumination, and means that the following bifolio begins with the basmala of sura al-baqara. Repeated cartouches, uninscribed but similar in form to ours, appear in the panels above and below the text on a manuscript of Sa'di's Kulliyat which sold in these Rooms, 31 March 2022, lot 1, and was dated to AH 901⁄1496 AD. The same use of cartouches can be seen in the frontispiece of a Qur'an in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (acc.no.AKM316), of very similar dimensions to the present lot.
The panels above and below feature a gold field - heightened by using a combination of different gold pigments - decorated with delicately-drawn blue cloudbands. This is much more reminiscent of a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection, which Anthony Welch suggested may have been made for Shah Tahmasp, and seems to have later belonged to Shah Jahan (David James, After Timur, Oxford, 1992, no.43, p.172). A further similarity is the interlaced gold border, also lightly pricked to bring out the gold. The sura titles in polychrome cartouches later in the manuscript are an additional feature which indicate that this is a manuscript of exceptional quality.
Unusually for most Safavid Qur'ans from Shiraz, this manuscript is signed. The scribe, Husayn al-Fakhkhar al-Shirazi, is recorded by Qadi Ahmad as being related to the Atabaks of Fars (Calligraphers and Painters, A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad son of Mir-Munshi, translated by V. Minorsky, Washington 1959, p. 76 and Qazi Mir Ahmad Munshi Qomi, Golestan-e Honar, ed. by A. Soheyli-Khwansari, Tehran, 1352, p. 34). Other manuscripts by him include a copy of the Bahjat al-Manahij in the Gulistan Library, Tehran; a copy of the sayings of Imam Ali; two calligraphic folios in the Topkapi library; and a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection (James, op.cit., no.45, p.184). Additional manuscripts signed by him include a Qur'an offered Sotheby's London, 20 November 1986, lot 318, and a further copy of the sayings of Imam Ali, sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2008, lot 303. Of those, the Gulistan manuscript is dated 1545 and one of the books of the sayings of Imam Ali are dated to 1562-3, situating this manuscript within the period when he is known to have been active.
The panels above and below feature a gold field - heightened by using a combination of different gold pigments - decorated with delicately-drawn blue cloudbands. This is much more reminiscent of a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection, which Anthony Welch suggested may have been made for Shah Tahmasp, and seems to have later belonged to Shah Jahan (David James, After Timur, Oxford, 1992, no.43, p.172). A further similarity is the interlaced gold border, also lightly pricked to bring out the gold. The sura titles in polychrome cartouches later in the manuscript are an additional feature which indicate that this is a manuscript of exceptional quality.
Unusually for most Safavid Qur'ans from Shiraz, this manuscript is signed. The scribe, Husayn al-Fakhkhar al-Shirazi, is recorded by Qadi Ahmad as being related to the Atabaks of Fars (Calligraphers and Painters, A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad son of Mir-Munshi, translated by V. Minorsky, Washington 1959, p. 76 and Qazi Mir Ahmad Munshi Qomi, Golestan-e Honar, ed. by A. Soheyli-Khwansari, Tehran, 1352, p. 34). Other manuscripts by him include a copy of the Bahjat al-Manahij in the Gulistan Library, Tehran; a copy of the sayings of Imam Ali; two calligraphic folios in the Topkapi library; and a Qur'an in the Khalili Collection (James, op.cit., no.45, p.184). Additional manuscripts signed by him include a Qur'an offered Sotheby's London, 20 November 1986, lot 318, and a further copy of the sayings of Imam Ali, sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2008, lot 303. Of those, the Gulistan manuscript is dated 1545 and one of the books of the sayings of Imam Ali are dated to 1562-3, situating this manuscript within the period when he is known to have been active.