A large illuminated Qur’an, copied by Mujannad ibn Ibrahim al-Aqushi, East Caucasus, Dagestan, dated 13 Dhu’l-Hijjah 1289 AH/10 February 1873 AD

Manuscripts of this group were previously attributed to South East Asia due to the presence of spurious colophons on a small group of similar Qur’ans. However, Shikhsaidov and Gallop have since reattributed a number of these manuscripts to Dagestan on account of key features such as the use of Russian paper, and fragments containing Cyrillic script found within the pages of one example (Shikhsaidov 2007 and Gallop 2008). The scribe of the present manuscript bears the nisba 'al-Aqushi' referring to Aqusha in Dagestan.

This large manuscript displays key features that are associated with Dagestan Qur’ans. Among them, Shikhsaidov notes a distinctive form of backwards sloping naskh, that Jan Just Witkam evocatively described as a “bold script of wildness and beauty” in regard to a Dagestan Qur’an in the Leiden University Library (inv. no.Or.11.964, see Witkam 2007, p.278). The confident and energetic script used by the scribe of the present manuscript clearly follows in this tradition.

The wildness of the script is complemented by organically drawn illumination in a palette of vibrant orange, soft turquoise and deep cobalt-blue in the three opening bifolia. The illuminator and calligrapher take a playful approach to the decoration by adopting a markedly different layout in each composition. The opening bifolium, in particular, plays with the scale of the manuscript with four exaggerated lines of bold calligraphy written with a vigor that is reflected by a ground of swirling leaves and flowers. The turquoise arabesque frame of the third bifolium bears a close resemblance to the illumination of another monumental Qur’an produced in Dagestan, sold in these rooms, 25 October 2023, lot 2.