SULTANATE INDIA, 15TH CENTURY

Details

A BIHARI QUR'AN OPENING BIFOLIUM
SULTANATE INDIA, 15TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on paper, Qur'an I, sura al-fatiha, v.1 to II, sura al-baqara, v.8 (part), with 9ll. black, blue and gold bihari script reserved against illuminated ground cartouches above and below with sura title in gold, in gold-illuminated cobalt-blue borders, on margins plain, the opening folio with further illumination on the reverse, the lot also including a further folio, Qur'an VII, sura al-a'raf, vv.163-169 (part), from the same manuscript, 13ll. bihari within plain margins with extensive annotation, impressive illuminated marginal medallion, mounted framed and glazed
Text panel 8 ¾ x 5 5/8in. (22.1 x 14.3cm.); folio 12 ¾ x 9 3/8in. (32.5 x 23.8cm.) max.

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Lot Essay

In addition to a highly characteristic script, the Qur'ans copied in Sultanate India are defined by a homogenous style of illumination. Especially characteristic here are the palm-fronds on an orange that flank the cartouches above and below the main text panel. Bihari Qur'ans are the subject of an article by Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, in which she suggests that these manuscripts share so many features that they may have been the product of the same workshop ("Manuscripts in bihari calligraphy: Preliminary remarks on a little-known corpus", Muqarnas 33, 2016, p.69).

Our frontispiece comes from a well-known Bihari Qur'an, other folios of which are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1992.145.2), the David Collection, Copenhagen (54 / 1998) and the Schøyen Collection, based in London and Oslo (MS. 4595).

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