Qur'an, miniature illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper, copied by `Ali bin `Abd al-Karim al-Basri at Agra, India, Mughal, dated A.H.982/A.D. 1574.

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

242 folios, of pointed leaf form, 19 lines per page written in neat ghubar (miniature) script in black ink on cream paper, colophon on final page, sura headings in white thuluth script on narrow panels of illumination, borders of gold scrolling flowers on pink-dyed paper, opening two folios with repairs to text area/margin, later red leather binding with panels of floral lacuqer and doublures of polychrome leather filigree

Catalogue Note

This is an extremely rare miniature Qur'an produced at Agra during the early Mughal period, and is an important and unusual survival.

The border decoration, in gold throughout, is typical of early Mughal work, strongly influenced by 16th-century Safavid border illumination, and although the panels of coloured illumination at the sura headings are very small, what is visible further demonstrates this Persian influence.

The manuscript was written in 1574, at a time when the Mughal patronage was greatly strengthening under the leadership of the cultured and bibliophilic emperor Akbar. At this time the royal kitabkhana was working on one of the greatest works of the early Mughal art, the celebrated Hamzanama, and the architectural focus of the court was on the construction of the new city at Fatehpur Sikri, outside Agra. Akbar had moved to Fatehpur Sikri in 1571, and according to the histories, the year 1574 saw the building of the caravanserais and milestones along the route from Agra to Ajmer via Fatehpur Sikri, and the building of the Translation Bureau (an important part of the royal atelier) and the Imperial record office at Fatehpur Sikri, just a few miles from where this Qur'an was written.