An illuminated miniature Qur'an in ghubar script, copied by Yahya ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Ja’fari al-Tayyari al-Baghdadi, known as ibn al-Nour, Mesopotamia, Jalayirid, dated Sha’ban 744 AH/December 1343 AD
Auction Closed
March 30, 12:47 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Arabic manuscript on paper, 163 leaves plus 1 fly-leaf, 17 lines to the page written in minute ghubar script in black ink, verse separated by a gold roundel, surah heading in gold outlined in black, f.1b-2a with a double page illuminated frontispiece composed of two opposing panels filled with gold Kufic within a blue frame, f.163b with the colophon written in gold outlined in black, in a light brown binding decorated with a stamped eight petal rosette with gilt dots, with flap
4.2 by 4cm.
Early miniature Qur’ans are rare. While a large number of Ottoman and Qajar examples survive, those datable between the Abbasid and the pre-Timurid periods are far more difficult to find. This manuscript is dated Sha’ban 744 hijri, which corresponds to December 1343 AD. The nisba of the writer mentions the city of Baghdad, which was under the control of the Jalayirid Sultanate at the time.
The illumination on the opening bifolium of this Qur’an comprises five lines of ghubar script enclosed between cartouches with square gold Kufic with a palmette extending into the margins. A comparable Qur'an dated to the late thirteenth century, with a similar opening bifolium with Kufic bands, sold in these rooms, 25 April 2018, lot 9.
A miniature thirty-part Qur’an attributed to Iraq, mid-fourteenth century is now in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic art (inv. no.QUR30; published in James 1992, pp.120-1). Another miniature Qur'an dated 720 AH/1320 AD from Western Persia or Anatolia was sold in these rooms, 23 April 1997, lot 53, whilst a further example, attributed to Turkey and dated 815 AH/1412 AD, was sold in these rooms, 5 July 1982, lot 103.
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