[CALLIGRAPHY]. [QUR'AN].
Heading for Surah al-Waqi'ah (56)
Heading for Surah al-Waqi'ah (56)
copied in the style of the monumental Baysunghur Qur'an.
Stock Code 125371
Qajar Persia, first half of 19th century.
The original Baysunghur Qur'an was a monumental manuscript measuring approximately 1770 x 1010mm, and would have consisted of about 800 folios. The Qur'an is named as such because of its attribution to Baysunghur (1397-1434 AD), grandson of Timur and son of Shah Rukh; there is contemporary evidence of his having written the monumental inscriptions on the Gowharshad Mosque attesting to this. However, a Qur'an of such immense size obviously necessitated enormous resources, time and calligraphic mastery and it seems unlikely therefore that Baysunghur would have been able to undertake a task of this magnitude himself. It is perhaps more likely that it was written under the patronage of Timur by 'Umar Aqta, a famous calligrapher of the time. Qadi Ahmad's 16th-century treatise on calligraphers mentions a huge Qur'an that was made in Samarqand in the time of Timur by this calligrapher (for more, see David James, After Timur. Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th Centuries, London, 1992, no.2, pp. 20-21).
The Baysunghur Qur'an is of such legendary scale and importance that replicating only one single line, half a millennia after the original, still resonates strongly with the original manuscript and is a testament to it's enduring legacy.
Single large panel of paper containing one surah heading, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Arabic, 190 x 94mm (visible); single monumental line of thuluth calligraphy copied in gold and outlined in black, set against scrolling tendril bearing swaying near serrated leaves, against a field thinly hatched in red, in modern pink mount, framed and glazed.
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