THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts
THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts
A FINE ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY MEHMED RASHID KNOWN AS HAFIZ AL-QUR’AN, ILLUMINATED BY HASAN AL-HILMI, TURKEY, OTTOMAN, DATED 1259 AH/1843-44 AD
Auction Closed
October 23, 11:03 AM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A FINE ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY MEHMED RASHID KNOWN AS HAFIZ AL-QUR’AN, ILLUMINATED BY HASAN AL-HILMI, TURKEY, OTTOMAN, DATED 1259 AH/1843-44 AD
Arabic manuscript on paper, 314 leaves plus 10 fly-leaves, 15 lines to the page, written in naskh in black ink, ruled in black and gold, verses separated by gold and polychrome rosettes of different designs, surah headings in blue riqa a within cartouches decorated with interlacing leaves, gold and polychrome verse markers in the shape of a bouquet of flowers in the margins, ff.1b and 2a with an illuminated rococo frontispiece, f.313b and f.314a with a finispiece bifolium, in gilt leather binding, with flap
text panel: 10.9 by 6.3cm.
leaf: 17.1 by 10.9cm.
Ex-collection Albert May Todd (d.1931).
Albert May Todd was an American businessman originally from Michigan, who made his fortune with the cultivation of peppermint. After travelling throughout Europe, he returned to the US in 1869 and established the A.M.Todd Company, producing essential oil. The company moved to Kalamazoo in 1891 and Albert became known as ‘The Peppermint King of Kalamazoo’. A bibliophile, Todd started collecting rare books at an early age, and by the time of his death his collection contained more than 11,000 volumes. He donated part of it to the Upjohn Library of Kalamazoo College and the Universities of Michigan. His book plate (as seen in the present manuscript) is also recorded in the Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco (inv.no.1963.30.20905).
N. Safwat, A Collector’s Eye. Islamic calligraphy in Qur’ans and other manuscripts, London 2010, no.37, pp.156-161.
Albert May Todd was an American businessman originally from Michigan, who made his fortune with the cultivation of peppermint. After travelling throughout Europe, he returned to the US in 1869 and established the A.M.Todd Company, producing essential oil. The company moved to Kalamazoo in 1891 and Albert became known as ‘The Peppermint King of Kalamazoo’. A bibliophile, Todd started collecting rare books at an early age, and by the time of his death his collection contained more than 11,000 volumes. He donated part of it to the Upjohn Library of Kalamazoo College and the Universities of Michigan. His book plate (as seen in the present manuscript) is also recorded in the Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco (inv.no.1963.30.20905).
This Qur’an was copied by Mehmed Rashid, known as Hafiz al-Qur’an, student of Kebecizade. Beneath the colophon the name of the illuminator, Hasan al-Hilmi, is also inscribed. Mehmed Rashid (d.1875-76) was born in Eyup, a district in Istanbul, and was introduced to calligraphy very early on in his life. His father was the calligrapher Hussein Shakir. Mehmed Rashid obtained his ijazeh when he was only eleven years old and he is credited as having copied more than thirty-seven Qur’ans. Another Qur’an copied by him is now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar (published in Safwat 2000, pp.234-5). He was a student of a Mehmed Vasfi Efendi Kebecizade, teacher of two young princes, the future Mustafa IV and Mahmud II (Derman 2004). Mehmed Rashid himself later became a calligraphy master, and a Qur’an by one of his students, Mehmed Tawfiq, sold in these rooms, 1 May 2019, lot 26.