Qur'an, Illuminated Arabic Manuscript on Paper, Herat, Safavid, Persia, 16th Century

287 leaves, frontispiece with 15 lines of black yaquti script to the page, illuminated in colours and gold,  text in cloud bands, a central line of monumental gold thuluth, sura headings in white riqa' on a gold floral ground, verses marked by gold roundels, textual divisions of marginal medallions, 12 lines of yaquti script with the top line in rayhani, the middle in thuluth and the bottom in muhaqqaq, central double page illuminated at juz' 15 in colours and gold, and end for final suras, Surat al-Nas in large gold thuluth, gold tooled leather binding in later Safavid style

This beautifully illuminated and high quality Qur'an is typical of Herati manuscript production, but its lavish decoration and multiple illuminated bifolia suggest a commission from an important person or library.  It is comparable in style to four other manuscripts, a Qur'an in the British Library (Or.13087) copied at Herat in 1563 (Lings and Safadi, 1976, no.138, pp.79-80), a Qur'an sold in these rooms 27 April 1994, lot 16, and 11 October 2006, lot 12; and a Qur'an sold at Christie's 9 October 1990, lot 56.