A HIGHLY ILLUMINATED QURAN BY THE MASTER CALLIGRAPHER DOST MUHAMMAD BUKHARI

Complete Quran, 356 leaves with 12 lines per page, in clear, elegant and uniform naskh script, in black ink, on paper. The text is vocalized throughout. There are two handsomely illuminated pages in the beginning. All headings of surahs are written in ornate script in gold. All verses are separated by gilt rosettes. All pages are ruled in several lines of gold and other colors. The division of the Quran are marked with gilt medallions on the margins. There are tens of such divisions. The recitational marks are indicated in red throughout. It was written by the master calligrapher Dost Muhammad Bukhari. The calligrapher told us in his dua’ al-khatm (prayer for completing the text) that he belonged to a particular sufi (mystic) order known as al-Aliyya and that he wrote it in the city of Medina, probably during his pilgrimage to the holy land of Hijaz. He also told us there that particular Quran was his 24th one and that he hoped to write 100 or more Qurans. The Quran is not dated. However, a similar Quran is mentioned by B. W. Robinson in his work 'Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book', where he dated the Quran as 1534. It is safe, therefore, to say that the present Quran was written around 1550 AD. The Quran is bound in full brown morocco binding, with a flap in the traditional Islamic bookbinding, in gilt arabesque floral design, with central medallion. 26 by 16 cm.