Coran ottoman manuscrit enluminé [القرآن الكريم]

Complete illuminated Ottoman Qur'an manuscript, n.d. (ca. 1840), 16° (9x13cm), 612 p., bound.
Complete Ottoman Qur'an manuscript, 612 pages written on parchment paper in black and red ink, margins ruled black and blue enhanced in gilt (5,1x8,5cm), text entirely in naskh script on 15 lines per page with gilt and polychrome florets between verses, flanked by large illuminated floral motifs in the margins of certain leaves. Customary for Qur'ans, this copy opens with an elaborately and finely illuminated double-page frontispiece.

Elegant Islamic full brown roan binding with a flap (mikleb), elaborately decorated in gilt and in blind, green paper pastedowns and endpapers, marbled edges. Binding very skilfully restored.
A almost unnoticeable restoration to the first blank leaf.
As indicated in a bibliographical note left by its owner, this copy was acquired in Constantinople on 7 April 1929.
Movable type printing was a latecomer to Turkey where first occurrences of printed materials can be traced back to 1726 in Constantinople. Despite this late arrival, manuscripts continued to occupy a prominent place in the Ottoman Empire. Contrary to the West where the Bible was the first printed book, the Islamic world believed the word of God to be only transmitted through the sacred practice of calligraphy. Moreover, Constantinople copyists formed a powerful guild (over 80,000 by the 17th century) eager to preserve their privileged status and income.

"[...] Ottoman artists were not content to copy the writing styles of other Muslim countries. They chose, refined, and perfected their methods, according to their own tastes, without altering the essential forms. While architecture, music, painting and the decorative arts have lost some of their identity under Western influence, calligraphy has not, for three reasons: the absence in Europe of a similar art form capable of influencing it; the transmission from master to pupil by skilled calligraphers using well-established traditions; and its ability to renew itself over time. Considering the time and effort it took the Ottomans to maintain their high standards over the centuries, the term "Turkish calligraphy" cannot be considered chauvinistic. In the Muslim world, the expression "The Qur'an was revealed in Hijaz, read in Egypt and written in Istanbul" is widely used. It was indeed in Istanbul that Qur'ans became true masterpieces." (Uğur Derman, Ottoman Calligraphy)

The making of the Qur'an begins with the work of the hattat (calligrapher) who writes text using a calamus; he is also responsible for indicating in red ink secavend, marks indicating diacritics, pauses and various other elements of recitation. "Traditionally, calligraphers who copied Qur'ans began [...] from the tenth cüz (fascicle; there are thirty of them, each averaging twenty pages). Then they would return to the Fâtiha (opening sura) until the tenth fascicle. In this way, the calligrapher had overcome any difficulties that might arise in suras ten to thirty, and finished in perfect nesih script for the first few pages." (ibid.)
Turkish illuminations (tezhip or "what is gilt") on Qur'ans are not just aesthetic: they indicate different divisions of the text. All Qur'an manuscripts open with a double-page frontispiece, usually richly illuminated (serlevha). Text is almost always framed in gold (cedvel) and underlined by black and colored lines, punctuated by numerous florets (duraklar) of varying appearance, marking suras and ends of verses. Margins feature secde gülü, large illuminated floral motifs indicating prostrations to the reader.
A very fine copy of this Ottoman Qur'an produced in the 19th century, at the prime of Turkish calligraphy.