2014.397: Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.397

Title

Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Classification

Manuscripts

Work Type

manuscript

Date

17th-19th century

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Safavid period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351911

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard (covers) Ink, gold, and colors on paper (text)

Dimensions

15.3 × 9.7 × 2.8 cm (6 × 3 13/16 × 1 1/8 in.)
Text area: 10.9 × 6 cm (4 5/16 × 2 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.

Note:
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar

Accession Year

2014

Object Number

2014.397

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

The manuscript is very small and opens with double illuminated text pages with sura 1 and 2. However the first page has been replaced with a later one, and a folio written ornately and minutely in shikasta nastaliq has been inserted between the original and replacement folios. The actual Qur'an text has been written in naskh in fourteen lines to a page in black ink on a ground of alternating yellow- and green-toned gold. A Persian interlinear translation is copied in red ink in nastaliq script. Extensive commentary written obliquely in shikasta script can be found on the margins of several pages. A note on the margin and the inserted folio give the dates 1084 H (1673) and 1141 H (1729) along with artists' names, although these are difficult to decipher. The binding is lacquered and the narrow field is composed of a central medallion with pendants and corner pieces filled with flowers and arabesques. Several borders of varying width frame the field. It appears that the original Safavid manuscript was refurbished with a lacquer binding in the Zand or Qajar era, at which time the extra folio and notes were added.

Publication History

• Massumeh Farhad and Mary McWilliams, ed., A Collector’s Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Harvard Art Museums and Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Cambridge, MA/Washington, D.C., 2017), p. 95, cat. 7

Verification Level