SECTION DE DEUX JUZ' (25 ET 26) D'UN RARE CORAN ENLUMINÉ

NORTH AFRICA, 15th-16th CENTURY Arabic manuscript on paper, 86 leaves. Text copied in beautiful calligraphic Maghribi in sepia ink, at 7 lines per page, within a frame of three red and blue fillets. Vocalic and orthoepic signs are in red, green, yellow and blue. Verses are not separated. Golden symbols - drop or three-lobed pattern - in the body of the text refer to the textual divisions mentioned in the side margin, in stylized kufic script, in golden ink. The hizb division is inscribed in a polychrome medallion. The titles, calligraphed in ornamental gold kufic script, are extended in the margin by vignettes composed of gold foliage scrolls. The volume ends with a page of four lines of text, separated by a frame with a lanceolate vignette. This space should have been used for a colophon, but is left blank. Modern reddish-brown leather flap binding, mounted upside down (flap on right-hand board). The first eight leaves - also copied in Maghribi - are from a later restoration phase. Condition: the volume shows traces of wetness. The text has been ironed in these areas with mauve ink. A few tears in the lower margin on the original first and last folios. Text: 18 x 11.5 cm; Page: 22 x 18 cm. Two sections of a very similar Qur'an, one dated 802 A.H. (1400 C.E.), published in the sale catalog: Sotheby's, Art of the Islamic World, London, October 23, 2019, lot 101. For a section, also very similar, described as dating from the 14th century see: Christie's, Islamic Art, London, October 10, 2006, lot 5.