227 - QUR'AN FOLLOWED BY A FALNAMA

QUR'AN FOLLOWED BY A FALNAMA Possibly Gujarat or Sindh, India, 16th century; the falnama signed by Mu’izz al-din ‘Urf Chhadu (?) b. Shaykh, dated Tuesday, Rabi’ II 1073 H / December 1662 Arabic manuscript on paper, 272 folios plus two modern endpapers, 15 lines of text per page, with the first, middle, and last lines in large muhaqqaq script, framing two panels of text in naskh script, blue, black, and gold jadwal; verses marked with small gold sequins; surah titles in thuluth within illuminated cartouches; the first folio decorated with a polychrome shamsa; the first spread decorated with a polychrome frontispiece, the Fatiha and the beginning of al-Baqara copied on a richly illuminated double-page spread, the Qur’anic text followed by a falnama (15 folios), signed and dated, numerous marginal medallions, later annotations in the upper margin, in a 19th-century dark green morocco leather binding, apparently complete. Dimensions: 14 x 7.5 cm (text panel); 19.5 x 11.5 cm (leaf) Provenance: Former collection of a high-ranking Algerian diplomat, received as a gift from a counterpart stationed in India in the 1980s, then passed down through the family A Rare Mughal Qur’an in the Sultanate Style, Perhaps from Gujarat or Sindh, 16th century; followed by a falnama dated Rabi’ II 1073 H / December 1662