Beschreibung:

Ɵ Section from a fine Abbasid Qur'an, attributed to master scribe Yaqut bin Abd'ullah al-Musta'simi, illuminated manuscript on paper [Mesopotamia (possibly Baghdad), late thirteenth century]single volume, 18 leaves, plus an additional endleaf tipped in at the end, fragmentary, containing leaves from chapters 41-44, single column, text-blocks formed of 6 lines of fine black naskh framed within a line of large thuluth at top and bottom of page, two surah headings for Ash-Shura (42) and Ad-Dukhan (44) on first and final leaves, each of these headings in gold lettering against spiralling gilt decorations in rectangular banners with arabesque shapes at each end, against a royal blue background (now faded), additional endpaper added with modern colophon attributing the text to scribe Yaqut ibn Abd'ullah al-Musta'simi, this leaf with some ownership seals, leaves trimmed with margins added, this sometimes trimming letters close to the edges of the text-block, surah markers throughout as gilt floral devices, a few sections of text crudely repaired with later manuscript facsimile replacing any loss to text, 340 by 255 mm.; modern leather over pasteboards, circular device blind-stamped to covers, a little scuffedAn exceptionally calligraphed section from a vast Qu'an, attributed to the master Abbasid scribe Yaqut bin Abd'ullah al-Musta'simi (d. 1298). He was the secretary to the last Abbasid Caliph and considered one of the last great medieval scribes of the Islamic world. Though prolific, few of his codices and complete copies of the Qur'an appear on the open market. The last complete Qur'an in his hand was sold in Sotheby's on 24 April 2007, lot 19, realising a staggering £748,500. However, the style of the present manuscript is more closely comparable to a fragmentary codex, containing verses from the Qasa'ida al-Burda, offered by Christie's on 27 April 2017, lot 31, that used a similar use of alternating thuluth and naskh calligraphy.