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Lot Essay
There is a tendency to attribute leaves from this magnificent Qur'an to Baysunghur (1397-1434 AD), grandson of Timur and son of Shah Rukh. This is based on the associative contemporary evidence of his having written the monumental inscriptions on the Gowharshad Mosque. A Qur'an of such immense size obviously necessitated enormous resources, particularly in terms of paper; each complete folio measured approximately 177 x 101cm. and the complete Qur'an would have required a total of 800 bifolios. While this would have only been available with royal patronage, it seems unlikely that Baysunghur would have had the time to have undertaken a task of this magnitude.
It is perhaps more likely that it was written under the patronage of Timur by 'Umar Aqta, a famous calligrapher of the time. Qadi Ahmad's sixteenth century treatise on calligraphers mentions a huge Qur'an - each line a cubit long - that was made in Samarqand in the time of Timur by this calligrapher. 'Umar Aqta had tried to astonish Timur by writing a Qur'an so small that it could fit under a signet ring. Finding Timur unmoved 'Umar Aqta went away and wrote a Qur'an of such enormous proportions that it had to be brought to Timur on a cart. This achievement is all the more remarkable as 'Umar Aqta had only one hand (David James, After Timur. Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, London, 1992, no.2, pp. 20-21). Qadi Ahmed even mentions that a folio of this copy was 'in possession of Mawlana Malik' [Malik al-Daylami] indicating that already in the 16th century the manuscript had been, at least partially, split up (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, p. 59).
Certain sheets have a very slightly weaker calligraphy than others and it is therefore possible that Baysunghur, who was a renowned calligrapher, could have copied some leaves to replace damaged ones.
Other lines from the Baysunghur Qur'an the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, the Reza 'Abbasi Museum, Astan-i Quds Library, Mashhad; the Gulistan Library, the Malik Library, the Museum of Ancient Iran, and the National Library of Iran, Tehran, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Art and History Trust Collection, Washington DC, the David Collection, Copenhagen and in a number of private collections. A double line was sold at Sotheby's, 6 April 2011, lot 185. A complete page sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2004, lot 22.
It is perhaps more likely that it was written under the patronage of Timur by 'Umar Aqta, a famous calligrapher of the time. Qadi Ahmad's sixteenth century treatise on calligraphers mentions a huge Qur'an - each line a cubit long - that was made in Samarqand in the time of Timur by this calligrapher. 'Umar Aqta had tried to astonish Timur by writing a Qur'an so small that it could fit under a signet ring. Finding Timur unmoved 'Umar Aqta went away and wrote a Qur'an of such enormous proportions that it had to be brought to Timur on a cart. This achievement is all the more remarkable as 'Umar Aqta had only one hand (David James, After Timur. Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, London, 1992, no.2, pp. 20-21). Qadi Ahmed even mentions that a folio of this copy was 'in possession of Mawlana Malik' [Malik al-Daylami] indicating that already in the 16th century the manuscript had been, at least partially, split up (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, p. 59).
Certain sheets have a very slightly weaker calligraphy than others and it is therefore possible that Baysunghur, who was a renowned calligrapher, could have copied some leaves to replace damaged ones.
Other lines from the Baysunghur Qur'an the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, the Reza 'Abbasi Museum, Astan-i Quds Library, Mashhad; the Gulistan Library, the Malik Library, the Museum of Ancient Iran, and the National Library of Iran, Tehran, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Art and History Trust Collection, Washington DC, the David Collection, Copenhagen and in a number of private collections. A double line was sold at Sotheby's, 6 April 2011, lot 185. A complete page sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2004, lot 22.