A Large illuminated Qur'an, Persia, circa 1560-70

Arabic manuscript on cream paper, 321 leaves, 12 lines to the page in naskh script in black ink, recitation marks in red ink, framed in red, blue and gold, bold waqf inscription on several folios, single verse divisions marked with star-shaped medallions in colours and gold, sura headings written in white thuluth on a gold ground decorated with polychrome floral sprays, margins ruled in colours and gold, fifth and tenth verses marked in margins with large roundels decorated with floral motifs on a blue ground, opening folio containing an eight-pointed shamsa followed by two illuminated double pages of text, illuminated headpiece starting surat al-Baqara, the end with an illuminated leaf with 6 lines of large white naskh each in cartouches of gold and blue, the final filled with floral motifs composed of red dots (left-hand companion page lacking), decorated falnama on final leaf, in contemporary brown morocco binding with gilt-stamped panel of floral motifs and cloud-scrolls, border cartouches stamped with floral scrolls and arch-shaped designs, doublures gilt-stamped with filigree work on coloured grounds

In good overall condition, some leaves with repairs to margins and borders, mild staining to outer margins, occasional smudging, end illuminated leaf lacking, ink strong, colours and gold generally bright, binding worn and with repair to spine, as viewed.
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This magnificent and well preserved Qur'an has all the hallmarks of the most refined manuscripts of the Safavid period. The inclusion of the falnamas at the end of the Qur'an is one of the features that distinguishes Iranian work from contemporary Ottoman work, which is often close in style.

The popularity among the Ottoman elite of grand copies of the Qur'an fashioned in the Iranian imperial style is indicated by the presence of Ottoman ownership inscriptions, or, as in the case of the the present Qur'an, waqf inscriptions. Iranian Qur'ans were highly prized in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the sixteenth century, as attested by a number of similar Iranian Qur'ans with such inscriptions (see Marcus Fraser and Will Kwiatkowski, Ink and Gold: Islamic Calligraphy, London, 2006, no. 35, p. 118-119).

Copies of the Qur'an, as well as illustrated manuscripts, formed part of the trade that passed over the Ottoman-Safavid border in spite of the hostile relations between the two empires that continued for much of the sixteenth century. That Safavid Qur'ans such as this one were particularly cherished in the Ottoman realms is demonstrated by their inclusion among the list of objects brought as gifts by Safavid envoys to the Ottoman court. The most celebrated of these embassies was the one sent by the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, which reached the court of Sultan Selim II in Edirne in 1586 (for an account of this embassy see M.B. Dickson and S.C. Welch, The Houghton Shanameh, 2 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1981, I, appendix II, pp. 270-71). In addition to the copy of the most famous Safavid reproduction of the Shahnama, the so-called Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, the Ottoman Sultan was presented with several copies of the Qur'an.

The Illumination

The opening page would almost undoubtedly have originally been part of a double-page opening with two shamsas containing an inscription with the Surah Bani Isra'eel/The Israelites, v.88 (the second half of this verse is inscribed in the remaining shamsa):

'[Were men and jinn to band together in order to come up with the like of] this Qur'an, they will never come up with the like of it, even if they back up one another.'

Other illuminated folios are:

Folios 1b-2a:  One fully illuminated double page with Surah al-Fatiha/The Opening in blue and gold, the text in white thulth within central lozenge-shaped cartouches, the inner and outer margins filled with floral sprays and arabesques in gold on a blue background;

Folios 2b-3a:  One illuminated headpiece containing the heading for Surah al-Baqara/The Cow, in blue and gold with polychrome floral arabesques, the text within cloud-bands on a gold ground decorated with polychrome floral sprays;

Folios 320b:  One illuminated page with six lines of prayers in large naskh and muhaqqaq script in white on coloured grounds;

Folios 321a:  Part of a decorated falnama, containing forty-two small squares, the text in nasta'liq script alternating in white ink on a ground of gold with floral motifs composed of black dots, and text in black on a ground of pink with floral motifs composed of red dots.

The fine illumination can also be compared to that of a Safavid Qur'an sold in these rooms, 27 April 1994, lot 19.