QUR’AN FOLIO, KASHMIR INDIA, 1835 AD Single leaf, Arabic man...

Estimate

£40 - £80

QUR’AN FOLIO, KASHMIR INDIA, 1835 AD
Single leaf, Arabic manuscript on very fine paper, 15ll. of black naskh script surrounded by a diagonal Persian commentary of a sophisticated nasta’liq script, interlinear rules in broad gilt, verses separated by gold roundels, text panels outlined in gold and black, marginal borders in broad gold, catchwords in red, diacritics in black and some vocalisation in red, mounted, text 13 x 23.8cm / frame 30.5 x 25.5cm
The peak of excellence of the later Arabic scripts is considered to be the 16th century under the Safavid Sultans. But some of the work produced during the early 19th century is a close rival. A special style developed in Kashmir is typified by the liberal use of gold especially in rulings between lines of verse. This imposing and lovely example is from a Kashmiri Koran scribed c1835. It dates from the last years of King George IV, immediately before Queen Victoria.