Thirty illuminated Qur'an volumes ('ajza'), China, 16th/17th century

Arabic manuscript on paper, comprising 27 volumes from one Qur'an, and 3 volumes from another, each with 5 lines to the page written in Sini script in black ink, some volumes with interlinear translations in black cursive, ruled in red, verses separated by gold or red roundels or rosettes, surah headings in red or gold, illuminated marginal verse markers, each juz' with an illuminated frontispiece framing text, in some volumes preceded by later added shamsas, in brown leather binding with flap, blue cloth doublures
32 by 22.4cm.
29.4 by 19.3cm.

Condition Report:
Comprising 27 volumes from one Qur'an, and 3 volumes from another. The folios with some creases, minor discolouration, and smudges, consistent with age. The edges of the text block with some scuffs. Text generally clear and legible throughout. Some loose folios. The illuminated shamsas later added. The bindings with overall wear, as viewed.

Catalogue Note:
The spread of Islam into China began during the Song period in the tenth century. Almost a century later, in the year 1070, a Muslim community mainly composed of soldiers and mercenaries had been officially established by the Emperor in the harsh northern territories to act as a buffer zone between China and her enemies. With the ascent of the Mongols, Muslim China began a new phase through an influx of Muslims from Central Asia and Iran travelling into China and rising to positions of power and importance under the Yuan (1206-1368).

Marcus Fraser relates this historical context to the establishment of codicological trends within Muslim China, and notably the influence of Central Asian Qur’ans of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in terms of calligraphy, layout and illumination. The significant migration of Central Asian Muslims into China would have conceivably corresponded with the transfer of Central Asian Qur’an manuscripts, along with the movement of calligraphers and illuminators trained in the Central Asian tradition (for a full discussion, see Fraser 2022, pp.180-199).

The standardisation in Chinese Qur’an production from the fifteenth century corresponded with a decrease in Muslim power during the Ming period (1368-1644). Their isolated communities were increasingly integrated by the indigenous Chinese, and their social, economic and religious freedom was gradually inhibited (Stanley 1999, p.12). Fraser suggests that the fourteenth century model for Chinese Qur’an production endured in part due to its positive association with the golden age of the Yuan period, and in part due to the significant decline in wealth and influence among the Muslim communities (Fraser, op.cit. p.192).

The conservative nature of Chinese Qur’an production can be seen in the similarities in palette and arrangement of the present volumes to another early seventeenth century Qur’an in the Khalili collection (inv. no.QUR992, see Stanley 1999, pp.19-21, no.3). These examples, in turn, also show a comparable arrangement to an early fifteenth century Qur'an also in the Khalili Collection (inv. no.QUR974). Each displays an arrangement of five lines of a similar distinctive muhaqqaq style script as in the present manuscript (see Stanley 1999, pp.16-17, no.1). The arrangement of the illumination is also comparable in the frames of the frontispieces, comprising an upper register of interlocked arches and a lower register of a repeated geometric motifs. A Qur'an in thirty volumes, also produced in China at the end of the seventeenth century, was sold in these rooms, 27 October 2021, lot 119.