AN ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, PERSIA, POSSIBLY SHIRAZ, SAFAVID AND QAJAR, 17TH AND 19TH CENTURY

AN ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, PERSIA, POSSIBLY SHIRAZ, SAFAVID AND QAJAR, 17TH AND 19TH CENTURY

Arabic manuscript on gold-speckled cream paper, 423 leaves plus 1 fly-leaf, 15 lines to the page, written in naskh in black ink, ruled in blue, red, green and gold, verses separated by gold and polychrome dotted roundels, surah headings in gold riqa’ against a blue ground of interlacing scrolls, the word Allah picked out in gold, re-margined in the Qajar period with polychrome and gold hisb, juz and sajdahs markers in the margins, f.1b and f.2a with a double-page spread of illumination consisting of a central lobed panel with gold riqa’, f.2b with a polychrome and gold heading (‘unwan) and text within clouds against a gold ground, f.421b and f.422a with a finispiece bifolium, f.422b and f.423 with Qajar prayers, in grey gilt and stamped leather binding

text panel: 14 by 6.5cm.

leaf: 21.8 by 13.1cm.