Attractive pocket-sized Qur'an,

An attractive pocket-sized Qajar Qur'an, likely produced in the mid-nineteenth-century during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar.

This manuscript was put together in a very attentive manner with elegant arabesques at the top of each page detailing the relevant Surah, and each leaf attentively ruled in gilt borders with gilt roundels throughout. Unfortunately the colophon bears no scribal attribution or date, but the quality of the paper and execution of the illumination and binding strongly suggest it was assembled in the mid-nineteenth-century.

Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Arabic, complete, 259 leaves plus one front free endpaper, 140 x 85 mm; single column, 17 lines black naskh script, some vocalization in red, surah headings in gold, opening two leaves with borders decorated in elaborate and brightly coloured polychrome designs, calligraphic lobed cartouche amidst floral scrollwork dotted in orange, yellow and pink ruled in light blue, the whole bordered in red with gold trefoils and ruled in green, wide illuminated margins with rising and hanging trefoiled palmettes outlined in orange and green against a deep blue field with polychrome flowers, verses marked with gold roundels, juz' divisions marked by decorated marginal ornamentation, catch-words, some light finger-soiling, some leaves water-stained and a little rubbed; housed in contemporary lacquered boards, hand-painted with central ornamental motif framed within a double-ruling of ochre set against a striking black background, housed in modern half morocco drop-box, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands, lettered "Illuminated Pocket Koran" in gilt, with "Persia, c. Late 18th century" at foot of spine.