A large illuminated Qur’an, copied by Ahmad al-Nayrizi, commissioned for Muhammad Ibrahim Bega Yuzbashi, Persia, Safavid, dated 1122 AH/1710-11 AD, with Qajar illumination

Ex-private collection, Greece

The margins of every page in this lavish manuscript are illuminated with an unparallelled array of arabesques and flowers. The format of each bifolio differs from the last, producing a manuscript of dazzling inventiveness and originality. The splendour of the illumination is fitting of the hand of the master scribe that it surrounds, Ahmad al-Nayrizi.

Best known for his distinctively Persian naskh script, Ahmad al-Nayrizi was active between 1682 and 1739. Originally from the town of Nayriz in Fars, Nayrizi was one of the most important and prolific calligraphers of the late Safavid period. He practised calligraphy under the supervision of Muhammad Ibrahim ibn Muhammad Nasir Qummi, better known as Agha Ibrahim Qummi, who worked from 1659 to 1707. Sometime in the late seventeenth century, Nayrizi settled in Isfahan, where Ibrahim Qummi was living, and where he came to the attention of Shah Sultan Husayn (r.1694-1722). The Shah and his court became important patrons of Nayrizi, who is reputed to have commanded large fees for his work; the total income he received over his lifetime is estimated to have reached 60,000 tumans, an incredible sum for the period.

Ahmad al-Nayrizi continued producing work of royal quality for almost two decades, and naskh calligraphers of later generations were proud to associate their skills with him. A single-volume Qu'ran by his hand can be found in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (see Bayani et al. 1999, p.128, no.53. For the latest work on the calligrapher see Semsar 1998, pp.100-8 and Safwat 1996, pp.212-3). A further Qur’an attributed to the scribe was sold in Christie’s, 27 April 2023, lot 40.

This Qur’an was commissioned by Muhammad Ibrahim Bega Yuzbashi (Commander of One Hundred) of the slaves of the Royal Household (ghulaman-i khassa-yi sharifa). Our aristocratic patron was responsible for restoring the Imamzadeh Isma’il in Isfahan in 1703-04. In 1700, he commissioned Ahmad al-Nayrizi to produce a considerably more modest prayer book (see Christie’s, London, 18 April 2016, lot 178). Copied a decade later, this manuscript documents a lasting patron-artist relationship between the two figures.

The grandeur of this Qur’an is a testament to the enduring reputation of the scribe. The manuscript has been remargined in the Qajar period, and further Qur’ans bearing the name of Ahmad al-Nayrizi document similar Qajar renovations. One such example, a smaller Qur’an recently sold at Christie’s, London, 1 May 2025, lot 54, was bound, burnished, illuminated and gilded in Mashhad, on the order of Crown Prince ‘Abbas Mirza’s son, prominent governor Hamza Mirza Hishmat al-Dawla. Another example, sold in these rooms, 9 October 2013, lot 80, was restored and illuminated at the order of the second Qajar ruler Fath ‘Ali Shah in 1237 AH/1821-2 AD. These examples demonstrate the value that manuscripts in al-Nayrizi’s hand held for Qajar royalty. 

This lavish manuscript surpasses the Qur’ans mentioned above by the outstanding extent of its illumination. Every leaf in this manuscript is adorned with an inventive array of illuminated margins, each bifolio differing from the previous, which transforms the manuscript into a spectacle of swirling arabesques and delicate flowers. The majority of the illumination is drafted with remarkable freedom and exuberance, while the start of each juz’ punctuates the manuscript with a series of comparatively more densely illuminated double pages on a blue ground. This is also true of the opening of the Qur’anic text and the final bifolio of the text which bears the colophon, ensuring that the importance of the scribe is not missed by the reader. To remargin a manuscript and commission illumination of this quantity, quality, and originality would have come at huge expense, reserved only to preserve the hand of this master scribe. It was almost certainly the prerogative of a member of Qajar nobility.