A QUR’AN LEAF ATTRIBUTED TO ARGHUN AL-KAMILI, IRAQ, BAGHDAD, MID 14TH CENTURY

Ex-collection Norbert Kouba (d.2018), Evanston, IL, USA.

This leaf comes from a Qur’an attributed to Arghun al-Kamili, one of the six famous pupils of Yaqut al-Mustasimi, active in Baghdad between the second and third quarter of the fourteenth century. He was a prolific scribe, renowned to a point that illuminators of his manuscripts signed their work in a wish to stress their association with him (see, for example, Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Din al-Naqqash, illuminator of a Qur’an now in the Chester Beatty Library, inv. no.1498, published in James 1988, cat. no.66). Two Qur'ans copied by Arghun al-Kamili, dated between 720 and 741 AH (1320/1341 AD, are in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul, inv.nos.K.202 and K.452. The latter manuscript was recently exhibited in the landmark exhibition The Art of the Qur’an – Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, held at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 15 October 2016 – 20 February 2017, published in the accompanying catalogue as no.26. For a full list see James 1988, pp.156-160).

Various other leaves from the same parent manuscript are known, including a bifolium with Bernard Quaritch (Tim Stanley, The Qur'an and Calligraphy, a Selection of Fine Manuscript Material, Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue 1213, no.25). Two leaves from surah al-Zumar (XXXIX) were sold in these rooms, 14 April 2010, lots 9 and 10; another bifolium from surah Fussilat (XLI) was sold in Christie’s London, 5 October 2010, lot 126; a further bifolium from surah al-Qasas (XXVIII) in Christie's, 26 April 1994, lot 36.