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Lot Essay
This Qur’an relates closely to two that were composed for the Safavid ruler Shah Sulayman (r.1666-1694 AD). One of those Qur’ans is in the Khalili Collection (dated AH 1101/1689-99 AD; Manijeh Bayani, Anna Contadini and Tim Stanley, The Decorated Word, London, 1999, cat.45, pp.138-9) and the other, which bore a seal of the ruler and was likely to be his personal copy, was sold in these Rooms, 17 April 2007, lot 100.
Like both of those, our Qur’an is followed by a prayer which glorifies Shah Sulayman Safavi and a note that records that the Persian translation and commentary included in the Qur’an is the ‘Suleymani’ version, composed for the ruler by ‘Ali Reza ibn Kamal al-Din Husayni al-Ardakani al-Shirazi in AH 1084/1673-74 AD. Although our manuscript was completed 15 years after Shah Suleyman’s death it seems that this Suleymani translation was one that retained its popularity. In the Khalili Qur’an it was added five years after the main text, in AH 1106/1694-95 AD, the year that Shah Suleyman died. Two other Qur’ans with the same translation, one of which post-dates Suleyman’s death, sold in these Rooms, 18 April 1998, lots 35 and 36. There was certainly a renewed interest in Qur’an production under Shah Suleyman and his successor Shah Sultan Husayn (r.1694-1722) and royal patronage of religious life intensified during this period.
The very fine illumination here is closely paralleled in another Qur’an in the Khalili Collection which is attributed to Isfahan, circa 1700. In their discussion of that Qur’an, the authors refer to it as ‘particularly striking’. Just like ours the margins are filled with a pattern of elegant blue palmette scrolls on a ground of two colours of gold overlaid with smaller floral scrolls (Bayani, Contadini and Stanley, op.cit., cat.47, pp.148-9).
Like both of those, our Qur’an is followed by a prayer which glorifies Shah Sulayman Safavi and a note that records that the Persian translation and commentary included in the Qur’an is the ‘Suleymani’ version, composed for the ruler by ‘Ali Reza ibn Kamal al-Din Husayni al-Ardakani al-Shirazi in AH 1084/1673-74 AD. Although our manuscript was completed 15 years after Shah Suleyman’s death it seems that this Suleymani translation was one that retained its popularity. In the Khalili Qur’an it was added five years after the main text, in AH 1106/1694-95 AD, the year that Shah Suleyman died. Two other Qur’ans with the same translation, one of which post-dates Suleyman’s death, sold in these Rooms, 18 April 1998, lots 35 and 36. There was certainly a renewed interest in Qur’an production under Shah Suleyman and his successor Shah Sultan Husayn (r.1694-1722) and royal patronage of religious life intensified during this period.
The very fine illumination here is closely paralleled in another Qur’an in the Khalili Collection which is attributed to Isfahan, circa 1700. In their discussion of that Qur’an, the authors refer to it as ‘particularly striking’. Just like ours the margins are filled with a pattern of elegant blue palmette scrolls on a ground of two colours of gold overlaid with smaller floral scrolls (Bayani, Contadini and Stanley, op.cit., cat.47, pp.148-9).