This remarkable complete copy of the Qur’an was scribed by master calligrapher Abu Al-Fadi Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Shafi Al-Sunbati Al-Araj - a royal scribe to a Mamluk sultan and a student of Yasin Al-Jalali - and is dated 1514 CE. Illuminated Qur’an made for the chief justice of Jerusalem and Nablus, dated 1514 CE “The colophon page is extraordinary, as not only do we see the text in four scripts, but also the use of the musalsal method, in which a pen isn’t lifted from the page, resulting in a seamless ‘chain’ of calligraphy,” Sotheby’s added in the catalogue notes. … A small number of works by the scribe are known, including only one other Qur’an, rendering the manuscript to hand both extremely important and rare.” In this manuscript, Al-Rumi displayed his mastery of the art, using four different scripts - “a strong and angular Muhaqqaq interspersed with a fine and balanced Naskh for the main text, an elegant Thuluth for the surah headings, with the addition of Tawqi on the final page” - with extraordinary skill. He is known as a master of the six pens and was held in great esteem at the Timurid Court. This manuscript, Sotheby’s said, “represents an outstanding calligraphic feat by one of the foremost practitioners in the history of the Islamic Arts of the Book, Ahmad Al-Rumi.

Illuminated Qur’an copied by Ahmad Al-Rumi, dated 1447 CE

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