A monumental half Qur'an section in Bihari script, North India, 19th-20th century
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Arabic manuscript on paper, 294 leaves plus 5 flyleaves, four pages with introductory text, 11 lines to the page written in Bihari in black and red ink, the word Allah and key phrases picked out in gold, opening illuminated double page frontispiece in polychrome and gold, 15 further double pages with illuminated borders, verses separated by gold rosettes outlined in black, further text divisions marked by large gold and polychrome marginal medallions, surah headings in gold on polychrome illuminated panels, ruled in gold and polychrome, with extensive marginal notes, in red leather binding with flap decorated with gilt details along edges
leaf: 43.5 by 29.5cm.
This impressive half Qur’an section produced on a large scale is written in the distinctive Bihari script remarkable for its contrasting vertical and horizontal letters. The script, probably a relation of Naskh, has obscure origins, but the tradition of copying Qur'ans in this style is thought to have lasted in India only from the period between the collapse of the Delhi Sultanate at the end of the fourteenth century and the rise of the Mughals in the mid-sixteenth century. Hence, this Qur’an section produced much later in the nineteenth-twentieth century is considerably rare.
Earlier Qur’ans written in Bihari script, though smaller in size, are in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London (acc. no.QUR237, see D. James, After Timur, London, 1992, p.104-7, no.28) and the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait (See N. Safwat, The Harmony of Letters: Islamic Calligraphy from the Tareq Rajab Museum, National Heritage Board, Singapore, 1997, p.88).
Thirty-five illuminated leaves from a monumental Qur’an in Bihari script dated to the sixteenth century sold in these rooms, 26 April 2023, lot 25.
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