THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts
THE SHAKERINE COLLECTION: Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts
A LARGE ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY HAFIZ ‘ATA ‘ALLAH, INDIA, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Auction Closed
October 23, 11:03 AM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A LARGE ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY HAFIZ ‘ATA ‘ALLAH, INDIA, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on paper, 31 leaves plus 4 fly-leaves, 52 lines to the page, written in naskh in black ink, verses separated by red dots, surah headings in red naskh, verses marked on the margins by rounded gold medallions, f.1b with an illuminated heading and surah al-Fatihah written in red naskh within clouds against a gold ground, in brown leather binding with a gild almond-shaped design
text panel: 24 by 12.8cm.
leaf: 30.2 by 20.1cm.
Ex-collection R.T. Lattey until 1892 when it was presented to Sir David Salomons Bart. (1797-1893), Broomhill, Tunbridge Wells.
Sold in these rooms, 6 July 1981, lot 66.
N. Safwat, A Collector’s Eye. Islamic calligraphy in Qur’ans and other manuscripts, London 2010, no.22, pp.106-111.
This Qur’an is unusual as each leaf contains an entire juz'. Fashion for these types of Qur’ans, mainly copied in India and Persia, developed in the late seventeenth century and continued until the nineteenth. An example dated to the seventeenth century is in the Chester Beatty Library, inv.no.MS.1562 (published in Arberry 1967, no.232, p.73 and illustrated as pl.67). Another contemporaneous manuscript was sold at Christie’s London, 18 October 1994, whilst two examples dated to the eighteenth century were sold in these rooms, 22 November 1985, lot 351 and 20 November 1986, lot 334. For further information on this format and its popularity in Mughal India, see the British Library blog: https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2018/06/thirty-leaved-qurans-from-india.html