Single-volume Qur’an

Location: Iran

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; binding with flap, of black morocco with stamped medallions on gold-painted floral ground; doublures of similarly painted red morrocco with filigree medallions

Dimensions: 247 folios; 38.3 x 24cm

Accession Number: QUR 206

Other Notes:

The first four pages and the final folios were very probably re-done in Mughal India under Shah Jahan (r 1628–1658). The brilliant palette and complex design of the opening spread (folios 1b–2a), the design of the headpiece and the dense marginal chinoiserie floral scrollwork of the first text pages (folios 2b–3a) are all characteristic of the finest illumination of his court studio. 

Script:

main text copied in muhaqqaq, thulth and naskh scripts, incidentals in riqa‘; 15 lines ot 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.48, pp.200–05.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.253, pp.218–9.