An illuminated Qur'an, Persia, Safavid, late 16th century

Arabic manuscript on polished cream paper, 427 leaves, plus 5 flyleaves, 11 lines to the page written in naskh script in black ink within gold-sprinkled panels, verses separated by gold florets pointed in blue and white, surah headings in white thuluth script within polychrome floral panels, illuminated marginal devices, ruled in colours and gold, interlinear Persian translation, 2 opening double page illuminated frontispieces decorated with gold and polychrome scrolling flowers and split-palmettes, further illuminated double page finispiece, red morocco binding decorated with gilt-stamped cornerpieces and central medallions

In reasonable overall condition, some worming to binding and inner pages, with associated repair, repairs to inner text block margins, calligraphy strong and gold, illumination good, some stains, as viewed.
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The manuscript begins with instructions for divination with the Qur'an reported from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq in Arabic naskh with interlinear Persian translations in nasta'liq; the best time to take divination in the seven days of the week; benefits of reciting various chapters and verses; numbers of verses, words and letters in the Qur'an; the number of times the names of God appear (2644 times); the number of times the name of different prophets appear; birth dates of the 'Fourteen Innocents'; prayers; reading instructions and where they should fall; years between different prophets (6149 years between Adam and Muhammad) and how many times each letter of the alphabet appears in the Qur'an.

The opening folio of the Qur'an bears a seal impression of a local Indian ruler, Sultan Muhammed Qutb Shah, dated 1010 AH/1601 AD. Above stamp the price is shown as '50 Hoon' (17 Rupees).