Coran ottoman [القرآن الكريم]

Complete Ottoman Qur'an, lithographed in Istanbul in 1889 after the calligraphic composition of Mustafa Nazif Kadırgalı Efendi, then individually finished by hand with red rubrication, gilding and illumination.

The volume comprises 612 pages printed in black on fine paper with a parchment-like surface. The Arabic text, written in an elegant naskh hand in fifteen lines to the page, is enclosed within black rules heightened in bright and matt gold, the text panels measuring 8.1 x 13.2 cm. The verses are divided by small gilt and polychrome rosettes, while larger illuminated medallions appear in the margins of selected leaves. Chapter headings, reading signs and subsidiary elements are rubricated by hand.

In accordance with the tradition of the finest Ottoman Qur'ans, the volume opens with a sumptuous illuminated double page. The text of the opening surahs is set within an intricate architecture of deep blue and gold, executed with exceptional delicacy. 

The colophon gives the name of Mustafa Nazif Kadırgalı Efendi and the date 1889. In a lithographed volume such as this, the inscription should be understood as the signature and date of the calligraphic composition used as the model for printing, rather than as evidence that each individual copy was transcribed by hand. The lithographic stone preserves the movement and proportions of the calligrapher's script, while the colours, gold and ornament added after printing restore to each copy something of the individuality of a manuscript.

Superb contemporary Islamic binding in full brown roan with flap, or mikleb, possibly signed Winkler. The boards are richly stamped in gold with a dense pattern of geometric interlace arranged around a large radiating central medallion. A broad gilt ornamental border extends along the spine, continuing the decoration across the structure of the binding. Losses of leather at the corners, edges and at the head and foot of the joints, the underlying boards remaining intact. Two browned pages, with occasional spotting and light marginal soiling.

This Qur'an belongs to a decisive moment in the history of the Ottoman book. Between the mushaf copied entirely by hand and the book printed from movable type, lithography offered a method particularly well suited to the reproduction of sacred scripture. It retained the continuity, proportions and rhythm of genuine calligraphy without the rigidity that typographical composition could impose. During the reign of Abdülhamid II, photolithography was consequently employed for Qur'ans that remained visually faithful to the great manuscript models.

The Matbaa-i Osmaniye played a central role in this transition. Founded in Istanbul in 1866 by Osman Zeki Bey, a trained calligrapher who later became First Chamberlain to Sultan Abdülhamid II, it developed into one of the principal printing establishments of the Empire. Research into the history of the press indicates that Osman Zeki Bey received a fifty-year monopoly for Qur'an printing in 1880. By producing copies at a more accessible price, the press allowed compositions derived from the highest traditions of calligraphy to circulate far more widely, both throughout the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

The present volume follows the âyet-berkenar arrangement that became characteristic of Ottoman Qur'an production during the nineteenth century. The text is set in fifteen lines, with the page divisions arranged so that each page concludes at the end of a verse. The result is a visual regularity of almost architectural precision, but the system also serves a practical purpose: by aligning the progress of the text with the succession of pages, it facilitates learning, recitation and memorisation. The format enjoyed enduring popularity and continued to be reproduced long after the end of the Ottoman period.

The distinction of the present copy lies precisely in this balance. The text was no longer individually transcribed, yet the volume surrendered none of the traditional splendour of the manuscript Qur'an. The calligrapher's hand remains perceptible in every line, the illuminator's work animates the margins, and the flap binding continues to protect the sacred text in a form inherited from earlier centuries.

A handsome example of a late nineteenth-century Ottoman Qur'an poised between two ages of the book,  beneath an illumination still entirely completed by hand.