NORTH INDIA, 15TH CENTURY

In 2016, Eloïse Brac de la Perrière noted in her article on Bihari calligraphy that of the 137 manuscripts which she was able to examine in European, American, and Indian institutions and collections, all but two were Qur'ans. Though this manuscript does reproduce the entirety of the Qur'anic text, each aya is accompanied by such extensive exegesis that this cannot really be thought of simply as a Qur'an. It represents an unusual addition to this little-known yet intriguing corpus of early Indian Islamic manuscripts.

In terms of the style and mise-en-page, this manuscript is similar to others within the group. The script is classically bihari, with the same naskhi-divani script which appears in the margins of other Qur'anic manuscripts used for the copious tafsir notes. It is richly illuminated with the classic bihari palette of orange, vermillion, and turquoise. It also reproduces the divisions which are often seen on bihari Qur'ans: the Qur'an is broken up into four parts at suras 7, 19, and 38 by illuminated double pages, presumably with a fourth - now missing - at the opening (Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, "Manuscripts in bihari calligraphy: preliminary remarks on a little-known corpus", Muqarnas 33, 2016, p.75). This division is rare outside the Indian subcontinent. An exception is a manuscript in Tehran, which seems to be Ghurid in origin (Museum of Ancient Iran, MS.3500). This division is reproduced in our manuscript, with heavily illustrated margins to mark each new section.

Although the manuscript challenges Brac de la Perrière's generalisation about the corpus of bihari manuscripts, it does not challenge her conclusions. Indicating the fact that around a quarter of manuscripts she examined had Persian interlinear translations, and that most had some kind of expository notes in the margin, she suggested that they served as 'a type of manual on how to use a Qur'an', disseminated through Sufi lodges at this formative moment, when Islam was beginning to penetrate into popular beliefs in the subcontinent (Brac de la Perrière, op.cit., p.78). This manuscript might have served as an aid to teaching or private study, giving the reader an explanation of the principles of the Qur'an.