Title: Single-volume Qur’an
Date: dated 13 Dhu’l-qa‘dah 1192 (3 December 1778)
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; 19th-century dark-brown morocco binding and slip case, painted in tones of gold
Dimensions: 279 folios; 15 x 9.5cm
Accession Number: QUR 1076
Other Notes:
This book represents the type of Qur’an manuscript produced for sophisticated metropolitan clients by Istanbul scribes of the later 17th and 18th century. The fine illumination, the work of an artist called Ibrahim Nazif, is matched by the excellent hand. Indeed, the scribe, who signed himself as Hafız Mahmud Celâleddin, was recognized as one of the leading calligraphers of his age.
The high regard in which this manuscript was held in the later 19th century is shown by the ownership inscription on folio 277b. This is in the name of Princess Nazima, a daughter of Sultan Abdülaziz (r 1861–1876).
Script:
main text copied in naskh script, incidentals in riqa‘; 15 lines to the page
Bibliography:
M. Bayani,T. Stanley & J.M. Rogers, The Decorated Word. Qur’ans of the 17th to 19th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume IV, Part Two, London 2009, cat.34, pp.170–71.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.263, p.228.
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