Lot 278 AN OTTOMAN ILLUMINATED QURAN, OTTOMAN BAGHDAD, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
A complete Qur'an, Arabic manuscript on cream paper, comprising 286 folios and 5 flyleaves. Each page with 17 lines of black Naskh script within gold and polychrome rules, with gold roundel verse markers outlined in black and highlighted with polychrome dots. Surah headings in white Thuluth script on a gilt ground within decorated panels, with gold and polychrome marginal floral devices indicating the hizb and nisf hizb divisions. The opening double-page illumination is richly executed in gold and polychrome, framing six lines of black Naskh script reserved within cloud bands against a gold-sprinkled ground. The final folio bears a colophon signed by the scribe, "written by al-Faqir Sufian al-Wahbi al-Baghdadi," and records its presentation to the Governor (Vali) of Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam), Ali Reza, in large black Thuluth script on a gold-sprinkled ground. Bound in green morocco with envelope flap, decorated with gilt-painted floral motifs. 11.5 × 19.5 cm. Catalogue note: Ali Reza Pasha was an Ottoman general and Vali of Baghdad from 1831 to 1842.