Page 38 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

At the end of the Qur'anic text is a colophon within an oval cartouche which
reads: bi-rasm khazana mawlana al-sultan malik muluk al-'arab wa'l ajam ghiyath
'al-dunya wa'l-din sultan Muhammad bin sultan aratna khallada allah mulkahu
(Ordered by the treasury of our Master, the Sultan, the King of the Kings of the
Arabs and Persians, Ghiyath al-Dunya wa'l Din, Sultan Muhammad bin Sultan
Eretna, may God make his kingdom eternal).
After this follows an additional colophon which reads faragha min tatmim
naqsihi [sic] al-'abd al-faqir al-muhtaj ila rahmat allah ta'ala mubarakshah bin
'abdallah al-i min jumla 'abid al-mawla al-wazir abi talib dama [wizaratahu?]
fi'l-baqi fi'l-thamin wa'l-'ashrin min dhu'l-hijja sana arba' wa khamsin wa sab'mi'a
([The manuscript's] copying was completed by the poor slave, needy of God
most High's mercy, Mubarakshah bin 'Abdullah al-i, from among the slaves of
the Master, the Vizier Abu Talib, may God perpetuate his [vizierate?] forever,
28 Dhu'l-Hijja, the year 754.

This important scroll, copied by a little-documented but renowned scribe for
the young ruler of a short-lived but powerful Anatolian beylik is an extremely
rare survival of 14th century royal Qur'an production.

The Scribe:
Only one other work copied by the scribe Mubarakshah ibn 'Abdullah, is
known. That is a magnificent thirty-part Qur'an belonging to the Mamluk
Amir Sirghitmish al-Nasiri, and copied circa 1320-30, probably in Baghdad
or Tabriz (now in Cairo and published in David James, Qur'ans of the
Mamluks, London, 1988, pp.148-49). David James describes his hand as
"almost identical to [that of] Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi" (James, op. cit.,
p.149). An album of calligraphy compiled for the Timurid Prince Baysungur
describes Mubarakshah ibn Abdullah as of the sittah (the album now in the
Topkapi Library (Ms.H.2310) and cited in James, op. cit., p.154). Although the The texts are all religious or Qur’anic, He states that they are all of such
compilers of the album were working within a hundred years of the sittah extraordinary quality that the must have originated from an older tradition
and more information regarding the oft-disputed identity of the sittah must (Tobian Nünlist, ‘Devotion and Protection: Amuletic Scrolls Dating from the
have been available to them, the fact that he is not mentioned in this capacity 14 Century: A Contribution with Special Consideration of Is 1624 (Dublin)’,
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elsewhere seems to preclude this supposition. Furthermore, had he been in Bethany J. Walker and Abdelkader Al Ghouz (eds.), Living with Nature and
amongst the sittah, he would have been copying this scroll very late in life, Things. Contributions to a New Social History of the Middle Islamic Periods,
which seems unlikely. As the second published work signed by the enigmatic Bonn, 2020, p.478).
but extremely gifted Mubarakshah ibn 'Abdullah, this scroll is an important
document that fills a gap in early Qur'an scholarship. Amongst those mentioned by Nünlist is a scroll in the David collection,
attributed to Iraq or Syria, first half of the 14th century, which is very closely
The Commission: comparable to ours (inv. no. 37/1996, Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World
The scroll was commissioned by Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad (r. 1352-54 and of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, p.60, fig.9). There it is
1355-1365) who inherited the beylik of Eretna in eastern Anatolia whilst still suggested that the intention was not to read it, as the script is diminutive,
a youth. Eretna, the dynasty's founder was a commander of Uighur origin but rather to bring luck. It was further suggested that it was probably worn
(and hence from eastern Turkestan) (Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New as an amulet or talisman housed in a case of leather or metal. The David
Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh, 1996, p. 234). When his master unsuccessfully Collection scroll is however half the length of the present, and as such this
revolted in 1327 to ally with the Mamluks in response to the fate of his father is just comprehensible - to have carried all 15 metres of our scroll around
Chupan, Ilkhan Abu Said appointed Eretna a governor of Rum. When the one's neck would have been an extraordinary feat! Another similar, but
Khan died in 1335, he was able to adopt the title of Sultan and establish his fragmentary, scroll is in a private Malaysian collection (published Islamic
own beylik which was under the protection of the Mamluk Sultanate. Eretna's Calligraphy, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1989, pp.98-99, no.22). That is
son Ghiyath al-Din, the patron of our scroll, was completely controlled by attributed to Cairo, circa 1360. These three scrolls form a coherent group.
his vizier Hoca 'Ali however, and was forced into exile in Konya by a popular All three share an inventiveness of design, though ours certainly excels
uprising. With the help of the Karamanogullari of Kayseri, he was able to in this. The illumination of the Malaysian example is closely comparable
regain Kayseri in 1355 and oust his elder brother Ja'far. He ruled for another and shares the distinctive purple colour that we have, for instance in the
ten years until 1365 when he was murdered by a group of rebels. This scroll cusped quatrefoil motifs. The David Collection scroll is of very close layout
was therefore commissioned during his first reign. to ours, with the Qur'an copied in tiny ghubari after various panels of elegant
illumination surrounding Qur'anic verses.
The Style:
The bright colours and fleshy but lively floral motifs that decorate this scroll The various attributions given to these comparable scrolls and to other
are found in contemporaneous manuscript illumination, both in Mamluk manuscripts decorated in a similar style stems from a lack of colophons
Egypt and Syria and in Iraq. What is unusual however in the present example stating place of manufacture. Few Anatolian Qur'ans decisively dated to the
is that the illuminator, and indeed the scribe, have pushed the boundaries of 14th century are known, and many of those are in the Mevlana Museum in
the normal repertoire, both in the colours, motifs and arrangements used. Konya and unpublished (David James, The Master Scribes. The Nasser D.
Tobias Nünlist has recently undertaken a comprehensive study of related Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1992, p.194). The colophon of our
scrolls in which ours is mentioned. He identifies fourteen documents of scroll which explicitly states that it was a royal commission for an Anatolian
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similar scroll format dating from the 14 or beginning of the 15 century ruler gives evidence which could re-address the attributions given to the
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(of which ours is the second earliest and the earliest that is clearly dated). small existing group of scrolls if not to a wider group of manuscripts.
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