AN ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY 'ABD AL-HALIM, STUDENT OF HASSAN AL-MASHAQI, PROBABLY BULGARIA, SHUMEN, OTTOMAN, DATED 1275 AH/1858-59 AD
Auction Closed
June 10, 06:00 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 10,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
AN ILLUMINATED QUR’AN, COPIED BY 'ABD AL-HALIM, STUDENT OF HASSAN AL-MASHAQI, PROBABLY BULGARIA, SHUMEN, OTTOMAN, DATED 1275 AH/1858-59 AD
Arabic manuscript on European paper, 308 leaves plus 1 fly-leaf, 15 lines to the page, written in naskh in black, ruled in gold, black and red, verses separated by gold and polychrome roundels, surah heading in white riqa against a gold ground within polychrome cartouches, gold and polychrome verse markers in the margins, f.1b and 2a with a polychrome and gold illuminated frontispiece, f.306a with the colophon written within a gold and polychrome roundel, in a brown gilt leather binding, with flap
17.4 by 11cm.
The blending of traditional Ottoman illumination with Baroque features, in addition to the large use of pink and orange in the palette of the artist, points towards an attribution to Bulgaria, and probably Shumen. The frontis- and finis-pieces can be compared to two Qur’ans copied in Shumen in the second half of the nineteenth century, now in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London (inv.no.QUR365 and QUR343, published in Bayani, Rogers and Stanley 2009, pp.230-241).