A MAGHRIBI QUR'AN JUZ'

MOROCCO OR ANDALUSIA, 13TH CENTURY

Details

A MAGHRIBI QUR'AN JUZ'
MOROCCO OR ANDALUSIA, 13TH CENTURY
Arabic manuscript on vellum, 81ff. each with 5ll. of elegant maghribi script, with blue and red diacritics, with tri-lobed gold and polychrome verse roundels, large gilt and polychrome marginal roundels and palmettes, sura headings in gold on blue ground surrounded by large gilt cartouche with multiple bands of gilt strapwork and extended palmette in margin, opening bifolium of juz' with a pair of large polychrome roundels containing geometric design inside square cartouche with gilt strapwork borders, end of juz' with similar illuminated bifolium with interlocking polychrome geometric quatrefoils inside square cartouches with gilt strapwork margins and extended gilt marginal palmette
Folio 6 x 6¾in. (15.3 x 17.2cm.)

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Lot Essay

The opening illumination of this Qur'an juz' is very similar to an Andalusian Qur'an copied by Husayn Ibn Ishaq for the private library of the Vizir 'Abd al-Malik ibn Siraj at Cordoba, which sold in these Rooms, 7 October 2008, lot 97. There are also very strong similarities between the sura heading in this Qur'an juz' and the sura headings on a Qur'an manuscript dated AH 654/1256-57 in the British Library (inv. OR.13192) illustrated in Jerrilynn D. Dodds ed., Al-Andalus, the Art of Islamic Spain, New York, 1992, fig. 5, p. 119). The calligraphic style of this Qur'an juz' is also similar to an Andalusian Qur'an section sold in these Rooms, 8 April 2008, lot 38.

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