A QURAN LEAF FROM ‘FIVE SURAHS’, PERSIA OR MESOPOTAMIA, PROBABLY 1350-1420

A QURAN LEAF FROM ‘FIVE SURAHS’ (SURAH AL-BAQARA, THE COW) IN MUHAQQAQ SCRIPT, PERSIA OR MESOPOTAMIA, PROBABLY JALA’RID BAGHDAD 1350-1420

A Quran folio from the ‘Five Surahs’ manuscript, Iran or Mesopotamia, surah Al-Baqarah from verses 102 to 104 on paper. The script of elegant black ink muhaqqaq, with gold words of Allah (God), vocalization in black and some with red, verses marked with gold roundels with rosette patterns, laid down within blue. 17.5 by 23 cm.

CATALOGUE NOTE This lot comes from a prayer book referred to as the 'Five Surahs', containing the suras beginning with the phrase al-hamdu li'llah (namely I, VI, XVIII, XXXIV and XXXV). Abolala Soudavar has suggested that such leaves derive from a manuscript made in Baghdad for the Jalayrid ruler Shaykh Uways, copied by 'Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Qayyum ibn Muhammad ibn Karamshah-i Tabrizi (the scribe mentioned in the manuscript's colophon, now in a private collection. See A. Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection, New York 1992, pp. 50-51, no. 19). Other folios from the same manuscript can be found in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (see D. James, After Timur, Oxford 1992, p. 16) and the David Collection (see K. von Folsach, Art from the world of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, p. 59, fig. 8).