2014.394: Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.394

People

Fathallah ibn Muhammad `Ali Isfahani
Ibn Haji Mirza Muhammad Taqi Abd al-Husayn Isfahani

Title

Manuscript of the Qur’an, with lacquer binding

Classification

Manuscripts

Work Type

manuscript

Date

1630-1631; 1856-1857

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan

Period

Safavid period

Culture

Persian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351915

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over metallic layer on pasteboard (covers) Ink, gold, and colors on paper (text)

Dimensions

21.1 × 13.6 × 4 cm (8 5/16 × 5 3/8 × 1 9/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Fathallah ibn Muhammad `Ali Isfahani (text) Ibn Hajj Mirza Muhammad Taqi Abd al-Husayn Isfahani (text)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.

Note:
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar

Accession Year

2014

Object Number

2014.394

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

The manuscript is composed of earlier text pages remounted on larger folios. The original text area is very small and copied in naskh script in black ink, 12 lines to a page. According to the colophon it was copied by Fathallah ibn Muhammad `Ali Isfahani on 25 Safar 1040 H (3 October 1630). These folios were later remounted on larger folios which are copied with Arabic commentary in a different hand. The name of this second scribe, Ibn Haji Mirza Muhammad Taqi Abd al-Husayn Isfahani, can be found in the margin of the colophon page along with the date 1273 (1856-7) and the patron Mirza Muhammad Zaki, Vazir of Isfahan. The lacquer binding on the outer covers, datable to c. 1850-75, is decorated with a large rose branch on a tan ground. The inner covers have floral arabesques on a red ground in the field and a framing border filled with arabesques.

Publication History

• Massumeh Farhad and Mary McWilliams, ed., A Collector’s Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Harvard Art Museums and Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Cambridge, MA/Washington, D.C., 2017), title page; p. 103, cat. 24

Verification Level