Unknown - Qur'an - Herat - 1460

Qur'an - Herat - Timurid - AD1460. This is a manuscript leaf from a Koran scribed shortly after Shah Rukh’s reign at a time of great political turmoil. It was relatively small for ease of carriage, thus was most likely for private use.

It contains 13 lines of scripture from the Medinian Chapter 48, Al-Fath (The Triumph) v.15-23, one of the most celebrated passages in the Qur'an, recounting the pledge of Ridwan (The Pledge of the Tree), a historic oath of allegiance taken by Prophet Muhammad and his companions in 628 CE at Hudaybiyyah. They pledged to stand firm and fight to the death if necessary. The passage underscores divine protection, the certainty of future triumphs, and the unchangeable laws of God.

The leaf contains 14 lines of evenly spaced and elegant naskh script in black ink and in an educated calligraphic hand. Multiple free-hand 'aya' in a simple gold spiral mark out the verses . Two marginal on the left mark the 15th and 20th verses respectively. The leaf is fully framed in gold and blue lines.

There is some devotional use staining bottom left through page turning, which has also exfoliated the marginal decoration, but otherwise this is a good clean copy and well preserved for its age dating from around the time of the fall of Constantinople to Islam in 1453.

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