Item Information

Quran, sūrat al-Fatīḥa and sūrat al-Baqara (sura 1 and sura 2)

Islam

Opening pages of the complete copy of the Quran with Persian interlinear translation.
Colophon signed by Muḥammad Muḥsin al-Iṣfahānī, dated Ramaḍān 1154/November 1741

November 1741 (Ramadan 1154 HIJRA)

Muḥammad Muḥsin al-Iṣfahānī

ara

Iranian lands

Donated by David E. Smith, 1931

unpublished

1741-11

exact

Iranian lands

manuscripts

Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University

Smith MS oriental 222

the scribe names himself in the dated colophon
marginal notes in Persian
dated ownership note with accompanying seal impressions from the early 19th century

Physical description for item from which digital images are taken:
no endpapers
7 flyleaves: 4 at the beginning and 3 at the end
392 fols. constitute the original Quran manuscript
neither foliation nor pagination
manuscript is too tightly bound to confirm gatherings of 4 bifolia
the Quran is written on thin transparent laid paper without visible chainlines, but the flyleaves are machine-made wove paper
24 x 15 cm
rubrication
illumination
the boards of the lacquer binding, which does not flush with the textblock, show a flower bouquet on the outside and flowering vines on the inside

references:
for the oldest extant manuscripts with Persian Quran translations from the tenth century CE, see Gilbert Lazard, La langue des plus anciennes monuments de la prose persane, Paris 1963, esp. pp. 33-35, 41-45, and 56-58; cf. Storey 1/1, pp. 1-3 s.v. 1-2; and Storey-Bregel 1, pp. 99-103 s.v. 1-2
Qurʾān-i Quds: Kuhan'tarīn bargardān-i Qurʾān bih fārsī, ed. ʻAlī Ravāqī, 2 vols., Tehran 1364 Sh/1985 (facsimile of Arabic-Persian MS - Mashad, Kitābkhānah-i Āstān-i quds-i riḍavī, no. 54 - with Persian tr.); cf. G. Lazard, "Lumières nouvelles sur la formation de la langue persane," in: idem, La formation de la langue persane, Paris 1995, pp. 184-198
for the 18th century use of the same symmetrical page design for the beginning of the Quran text, cf. two Indian manuscripts in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art in: Manijeh Bayani et al., The Decorated Word: Qurʾans of the 17th to 19th Centuries, London 1999, pp. 208-219 s.v. 68-69

eng

rd

book

24 x 15 cm