An illuminated Qur'an folio, [Persia, Safavid, 16th century]

Property from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

An illuminated Qur'an folio

Arabic manuscript on paper. [Persia, Safavid, 16th century]

single leaf, 375 x 280mm., text panel 248 x 175mm., 14 lines to the page written in black naskh script, the first, eighth and fourteenth lines in larger muhaqqaq script, verses separated by gold and blue roundels, surah heading in gold thuluth on a blue illuminated panel, margins ruled in polychrome, illuminated marginal devices

The blue illuminated text panel comprises the title of the fifty-ninth chapter (surah) of the Qur’an. The large size and different style of scripts employed for the text are noteworthy aspects of this folio. The textual format conforms to the artistic traditions of the period with panels of text that combine large muhaqqaq and small naskh. For a 16th century Safavid Qur’an section (juz’) of comparable size and a similar style of script which sold recently at auction, see Sotheby’s London, 23 October 2019, lot 135.

PROVENANCE:

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Gallery Purchase, 1940