Page 27 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
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THREE GOLD RINGS AN ILKHANID QUR'AN SECTION
SELJUK IRAN, 12TH/13TH CENTURY IRAN, 13TH CENTURY
Each of gold, the first decorated with applied and engraved arabesques and Arabic manuscript on paper, 70ff. each with 11ll. of elegant muhaqqaq, scripts. Probably because of this, the script was also widely used by the
a carnelian seal set within claws; the second with a shank decorated in niello occasional red diacritics, gilt rosette markers, large gilt and polychrome Mamluks. Martin Lings and Yasin Hamid Safadi note that considerably
with geometric patterns and inscriptions, applied gold foliate motifs, set with marginal roundels and palmettes, 35 sura headings in white muhaqqaq on more Mamluk Qur’ans exist today than Ilkhanid due to both the style being
a piece of iridescent glass within four claws; the third with the square gold ground of gilt swirling vines issuing palmettes into the margins, unbound quickly superseded but notably due to the rapidity and destructiveness of
setting decorated in niello and applied gold arabesques and palmettes, the 16w x 121in. (42.9 x 30.6cm.) the Timurid invasions of the late 14 century which Mamluk Egypt escaped
th
surface decorated with a quatrefoil motif £30,000-50,000 US$35,000-57,000 (The Qur’an, exhibition catalogue, London, 1976, p.68). For a recent and
1in. (2.5cm.); 1qin. (3.9cm.); ¾in. (2.1cm.) across (3)
€35,000-57,000 comprehensive study of the muhaqqaq script see Nasser Mansour and Mark
£8,000-12,000 US$9,200-14,000 Allan, Sacred Script: Muhaqqaq in Islamic Calligrpahy, London 2011.
Although only a part of a once complete Qur’an, the 35 suraheadings and
€9,200-14,000 Stylistically this section relates to a 14th century Qur’an in the Islamic
70 folios of this section give a good idea of how magnificent the original
Museum in Jerusalem which was endowed to the Ibrahimi mosque in
manuscript would have been. This section is written in wonderfully elegant
PROVENANCE: Hebron (K.Salameh, The Qur’an Manuscripts in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic
muhaqqaq, the favoured script of larger format Qur’ans in Iran and Iraq
London trade by 1998 Museum, Jerusalem, 2001, no.16, pp.90-94).
under the Ilkhanid Mongols. The sweeping horizontal sublinear extensions
(detail) INSCRIPTIONS: of the letters give a real impetus to muhaqqaq that is not found in other
The carnelian seal with the names of the Twelve Imams
A gold Seljuk ring with an inscribed seal was sold online at Christie's,
Calligraphy: Art in Writing, 17 March-7 April 2021, lot 6.
24 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty 25
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.