Page 37 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE ROYAL

ANATOLIAN QUR'AN SCROLL MADE

FOR GHIYATH AL-DIN SULTAN

MUHAMMAD IBN SULTAN ERETNA

28
A QUR'AN SCROLL (TUMAR)
COMMISSIONED FOR GHIYATH AL-DIN SULTAN MUHAMMAD IBN SULTAN
ERETNA, SIGNED MUBARAKSHAH IBN 'ABDULLAH, EASTERN ANATOLIA,
DATED AH 754/1353-54 AD
Arabic manuscript on buff paper, the beginning with a series of alternated round and
rectangular panels heavily and elegantly illuminated in gold, silver and polychrome and
including religious invocations and names of God, flanked at either end by two unusual
palmettes filled with bright floral arabesques against a silver and gold ground, followed
by six cusped and variant cartouches (haykal) containing a lattice of ghubari, five around
central gold illuminated medallions of variant form, a seventh with three small rosettes
also filled with ghubari and bordered by a series of alternating long calligraphic and short
gold cartouches, followed by the beginning of the Qur'anic text, the Qur'an arranged in
a series of roundels in ghubari with gold rosettes in the interstices and contained within
ovoid cartouches, the borders a series of alternating regular calligraphic and floral
roundels, juz' headings in white thuluth reserved against polychrome panels of various
forms, the colophon in white thuluth against gold illuminated ground and outlined by the
continuing borders, scribe's name and date below in flowing black naskh, first panel a
later Ottoman replacement
51ft.7in. x 4win. (1572 x 11.9cm.)
£250,000-350,000 US$290,000-400,000
€290,000-400,000
PROVENANCE:
Djafar Ghazi, Munich
LITERATURE:
th
Tobian Nünlist, ‘Devotion and Protection: Amuletic Scrolls Dating from the 14 Century:
A Contribution with Special Consideration of Is 1624 (Dublin)’, in Bethany J. Walker and
Abdelkader Al Ghouz (eds.), Living with Nature and Things. Contributions to a New Social
History of the Middle Islamic Periods, Bonn, 2020, pp.475-533.
Tobian Nünlist, ‘Dokumente in Rollenform aus dem 14.-19.Jh‘, in Heinrich Biesterfeldt and
Sebastian Günther, Islamic History and Civilisation, Vol.185, Leiden, 2020, pp.465-68
INSCRIPTIONS:
The scroll opens with a panel with Allah in all four corners and half way along the sides. In
the centre of the panel is Qur'an XXIII (sura al-mu'minun), v.115. This is followed by a panel
with cartouches running around the borders containing Qur'an CXII (sura al-ikhlas), the
phrase fa-ittaqu allah (so fear God) and a repetition of parts of Qur'an CXII (sura al-ikhlas).
In a rosette within a shamsa are invocations to God. The ten quatrefoil devices that follow
have further invocations. These are followed by a roundel with tawakkaltu 'ala allah (I put
my faith in God) in the centre surrounded by repeats of the word Allah. Then comes a
long panel containing the beginning of Qur'an LVII (sura al-hadid), v.3 bordered by Qur'an
CXII (sura al-ikhlas). This is followed by another roundel with the remainder of Qur'an
LVII (sura al-hadid), surrounded by repeats of the word Allah. Next comes a panel with 10
rosettes, each containing an invocation to God. This is followed by an ornamental device
under which is written in faint letters tahrir fi sana 47[?] (written in 47[?]). A date of the
5th century hijra however is consistent neither with the style of the illumination, nor with
the colophon at the end of the manuscript. This must therefore be a later addition. This is
followed by the hirz-e yamani, prayers said to have been transmitted from the Prophet to
'Ali. These are divided into 7 haykals (protective prayers), written in tiny script diagonally
criss-crossing the page. These all ask for God's protection against various evils and
include the bismallah, the shahada and excerpts from the Qur'an including Qur'an CXII
(sura al-ikhlas), II (sura al-baqara), vv. 255-256, LXV (sura talaq), v.3, III (sura al-'imran),
v.16. In a cartouche beneath the seventh and final prayer is written du'a-ye hirz-e yamani,
followed by an oval cartouche which contains Qur'an LXI (sura al-saff), parts of v.13, after
which follows the Qur'an.

34 35