BEAU CORAN HARARI SIGNÉ ET DATÉ

ETHIOPIA, COPIED BY MUHAMMAD AL-BASHIR AL-NADHIR KABIR 'ABD AS-SALAM IBN SIM JARAD ABU BAKR. DATED: TUESDAY 4, RABI' AL-AWWAL 1193 H./ MARCH 22, 1779 Arabic manuscript on watermarked western laid paper (tre lune). 299 folios + 2 endpapers. The text is copied in a variant of the Bihari style, at 13 lines per page, in black ink (carbon ink). A 4-folio preface, copied by the same hand in red ink, precedes the Qur'anic text. This is followed by a one-page postface index, also copied in red, indicating the total number of verses according to the different regional schools. The initial double-page is inscribed in a rectangle illuminated in red and black ink, with two lateral bands featuring white interlacing on a red background. Diacritical marks and vowels are in black. Orthoepic signs and verse separators are in red. Between each sura is a formula in red, giving the title of the forthcoming sura, the place of revelation and the number of verses. In the margins, the copyist has indicated in red the divisions of the text (into hizb, quarter and half hizb, and juz') and in blue, glosses relating to the spelling of the consonant skeleton. Original binding, restored in the 20th century. Text area : 15.5 x 10.5 cm ; Page : 22.5 x 16 cm This manuscript, copied in 1193H./1779, displays formal characteristics - decorations, calligraphy, formats - typical of the East African manuscript tradition, and more specifically of the production of the city of Harar, located in eastern Ethiopia. This production seems to have been formalized around the 18th century; the earliest dated witnesses predate the example presented here by only a few decades (see the manuscript in the Khalili QUR706 collection, dated 1162H./1749). The Harar Qur'ans are distinguished first and foremost by their ability to borrow and reinterpret visual elements from sometimes distant manuscript traditions, such as that of sultanate India (see the work of S. Mirza). The other remarkable feature of this Koranic production is the insertion of a long preface - inspired by the rhymed treatise of the Shatibiyya, composed by al-Shatibi (d. 590/1194) - serving as a guide to reading, which constitutes a unique testimony to the use of the mushaf within the Muslim community in these regions.