Miniature Single-volume Qur’an

Location: Turkey

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; 15th- or 16th-century leather binding

Dimensions: 491 folios; 4 cm (diameter)

Accession Number: QUR 371

Other Notes:

Minute Qur’ans of this octagonal format are particularly known from Ottoman Turkey, where they were placed in metal cases which were attached to battle standards and evidently served as amulets.

There is a date on the final page which appears to read thamanami’ah (‘eight hundred’), dating the present Qur’an to the 15th century AD. 

Script:

copied in a minute naskh script; 14 lines to the page

Bibliography:

D. James, After Timur. Qur’ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume III, London 1992, cat.17, p.70.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.172, p.147.