A large Qur'an leaf in muhaqqaq script on pink paper, Egypt, Mamluk, circa 728 AH/1327 AD

This folio comes from a large Mamluk Qur'an related in style and calligraphy to several examples of the 1330s, in particular a manuscript in the National Library, Cairo, dated 1331, another in the National Library, Cairo, dated 1334, one in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, datable to 1332-36, and one in the Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran, dated 1338-39 (D. James, Qur'ans of the Mamluks, London, 1988, cats.15, 17,18, 20).

Another folio from the same Qur'an is in the Aga Khan Museum Collection and was exhibited in the exhibition Spirit and Life, Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Aga Khan Museum Collection, Parma and London, March-August 2007. It is illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, no.8. Three further leaves from the same manuscript sold in these rooms, 31 March 2021, lot 5; 9 April 2014, lot 21 and 6 April 2011 as part of the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One, lot 16.