Arabic manuscript on thick cream-coloured paper, 273 leaves, 15 lines to the page written in clear jawi script in black ink with diacritics and vowel points in black, red roundels between verses, inner margins ruled in black, catchwords in wide outer margins, lacks illuminated devices, sura headings written in elongated naskhi script in red, one double-page illuminated frontispiece in the form of two cusped medallions incorporating a repetition of the Shahadah, the Muslim affirmation of faith, written in a stylised kufic in gold on a blue ground and interspersed with stylised serrated leaves and knotted motifs in red and gold, and a full-page illuminated panel with a central medallion incorporating the words al-Qur'an al-Karim in gold on a blue ground, some discoloration, contemporary brown morocco, covers decorated with stamped central medallions, cornerpieces, florets and borders bands, edges worn, rebacked
324 x 215 mm.

Footnotes

Compare the illumination of this manuscript with that of a Qur'an from Sumedang, West Java, dated 1856, which also features portions of the Shahadah repeated on both pages of the frontispiece: see James Bennett, Crescent Moon: Islamic Art and Civilisation in South-East Asia, Adelaide 2005, pp. 170-171, no. 25, in a chapter (5) by Annabel Teh Gallop, 'Islamic manuscript art of Southeast Asia'.

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A large illuminated Qur'an written in jawi script South-East Asia, probably Java, dated AH 1308/AD 1890-91

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Oliver White