Coran ottoman manuscrit enluminé [القرآن الكريم]

Complete illuminated Ottoman Qur'an manuscript, zilhidje [Dhu al-Hijja] 1277 AH [July-August 1861], 8° (12,5x18,8cm), 610 p., bound.

Complete Ottoman manuscript of the Qur'an, 610 pages written on parchment paper in black and red ink, margins ruled in black (7.5x13cm) enhanced with bright and matt gold, 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, very beautiful sura headings as well as elaborately colored and gilt vegetal miniatures. Customary for Qur'ans, this copy opens with an elaborately and finely illuminated double-page frontispiece. Illuminations and florets in gilt in this extremely fine manuscript are decorated with minute spots stamped in blind forming various motifs and lines.
The last leaf of our copy features a superb full-page illuminated painting of a rose blossom, symbolizing prophet Muhammad.
The colophon indicates the copy as the work of a certain el-Hadj Ahmed Shevki in Kastamonu, assistant teacher at the madrasa of Kadi Nasrullah, one of the disciples of el-Hadj Mehmed el-Rüshdi, hoca at the sultan's palace, completed in the month of zilhidje [Dhu al-Hijja] 1277 AH, i.e. July-August 1861.
Superb Islamic full brown roan binding with a flap (mikleb), elaborately painted with vegetal motifs in two shades of gold, green paper spines, endpapers and flap interior ruled with a Greek frieze in gilt and stamped in gilt at centre with a large motif, all edges gilt. Binding very skilfully restored.
As indicated in a bibliographical note left by its owner, this copy was acquired in Constantinople on 20 October 1927.

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 the 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.
We would like to thank Mrs Nathalie Clayer, researcher at the Centre d'études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBAC), for her kind assistance in the writing of this description.
Provenance: private collection since 1927.