2014.396: Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.396

Title

Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Classification

Manuscripts

Work Type

manuscript

Date

1719

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan

Period

Safavid period

Culture

Persian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351916

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, copper particles, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard (covers) Ink, gold, and colors on paper (text)

Dimensions

13.6 × 8.6 × 2.4 cm (5 3/8 × 3 3/8 × 15/16 in.)
Text area: 10.2 × 5.3 cm (4 × 2 1/16 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

2014.396

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

The manuscript opens with double illuminated pages with central medallions with prayers followed by double illuminated text pages with suras 1and 2. The text is copied in naskh script, 21 lines to a page, with illuminated chapter headings. The colophon page gives the name of the scribe, Muhammad Salih Muhammad Muhsin al-Isfahani who finished copying in H 1132 (1719). It appears that the folios, which were originally copied on cream-colored paper, have been re-margined with pink paper at a later date when some illuminated folios were also added to the text block. The lacquer binding, which may date from this later refurbishment, has a central medallion with pendants filled with floral sprays set against a gold floral arabesque. A thin band frames the field. The inner covers are decorated with a diamond-shaped central flower group and pendants. A thin band surrounds the field.

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. 94, cat. 5

Verification Level