Herat - Qur'an - 1590

A highly decorative leaf from a Qur'an dated 1590, scribed in Herat (then Persia) under the Safaivid sultanate. The scripture comprises the concluding verse of chapter 58, Al-Mujadilha (The Pleading Woman), the illuminated Surah of chapter 59, Al-Hashr (The Banishment) and v.1-5 of the same. These detail the expulsion of the Banu Nadir, a Jewish tribe in Madinah, and establish lessons on divine power, military strategy, and accountability.

The folio is in the ancient Muhaqqaq script adorned with traditional floral motifs and goldenrod illuminations as marginal devices, both marking the verses and adding beauty to the scripture. Verses are delineated with gold 'aya', divided into 6 sections by thin blue lines and having a centre red dot. There are three larger headings in gold, one at the top, one dividing the scripture and one at the bottom. These are scripted in thicker gold muhaqqaq. There is also an illuminated chapter heading for Chapter 59, written in white Thuluth script within a gold cartouche book-ended by celestial blue floral decorations. The whole folio and the headings themselves are framed in thin gold linear marking and then a much thicker gold frame. A single blue frame completed the folio.

Aside from the wormholes, seen as black dots in the images, this is a high quality folio in good condition. for its age retaining its vibrant colour and gilt.

Please note that shipping costs are not solely the cost of the postal delivery service itself. Included within the shipping price is the work undertaken to prepare the article, for photography, for uploading to Catawiki, for preparation and packaging the article securely and for transporting the article to the postal delivery agent for processing.

Please consider when bidding on this lot that this artwork is shipped from the UK. Import duties will now have to be paid by the recipient to the Postal Service when the parcel arrives in your country. This will likely vary between 5% and 20% of the sale price depending on your country's Import Rate. This is a Tax collected on behalf of your Government and is not an additional delivery fee charged by me.

New German customs regulations mean that we are now having to pay customs before the item leaves the UK. Regrettably we have to pass these costs on through a surcharge on postage to Germany. As we don't know the final auctions costs we have estimated the approximate value. If the custom costs more than we have anticipated, we will absorb the additional customs duty.